Hens Dancing

Venetia Summers appears to lead a fairy-tale rural existence with her husband and two sons in her tumbledown Norfolk cottage. But when her husband leaves her for his masseuse, not even the arrival of a splendid baby daughter can make up for the sense of loss she feels for her newly lopsided family. Hens Dancing follows Venetia's diaries over the course of a year. It tells of domestic battles -- with an unruly garden, errant cockerels, Orcs and War Hammers and a traumatic bathroom conversion. But there are also consolations: a passion for fun fur, the severe beauty of the Norfolk landscape, the regal serenity of The Beauty (Venetia's baby daughter) and perhaps, amongst it all, the promise of new love.

“An entertaining celebration of family life with all its highs, lows and eccentricities. It puts Barker firmly in the camp of interesting female novelists who entertain as much as they inform.”–The Times (London)

“Imagine Bridge Jones cooled out, married, the mother of three, living in the British countryside–and suddenly deserted by her husband. The result might be something like this breezy novel.”–Us Weekly

“Rafaella Barker endows her narrator with a keen sense of humor. And the author’s disarming portrait of country life almost makes you want to trade places with Venetia.” –The Dallas Morning News