A Daily Mail Book of the Year
'A warm and wonderful story' Adele Parks
Runner-up for the Paul Torday Memorial Prize
It’s the heatwave summer of 1976 and 14-year-old would be poet Jackie Chadwick is newly fostered by the Walls. She desperately needs stability, but their insecure, jealous teenage daughter isn't happy about the cuckoo in the nest and sets about ousting her.
When her attempts to do so lead to near-tragedy – and the Walls’ veneer of middle-class respectability begins to crumble – everyone in the household is forced to reassess what really matters.
Funny and poignant, Cuckoo in the Nest is inspired by Fran Hill’s own experience of being fostered. A glorious coming of age story set in the summer of 1976.
'Fresh, authentic and darkly funny. I absolutely loved it' Ruth Hogan, bestselling author of The Keeper of Lost Things
'Illuminating and tender' WI Life magazine
'Vivid, funny, nostalgic and utterly charming' Veronica Henry
'Laugh out loud funny, yet heartbreakingly sad' Frances Quinn
'Totally evokes a seventies childhood' Joanna Nadin
'This made my soul sing! Witty, poignant and full of heart' Jessica Ryn
'Poignant and uplifting' Jane Bettany
'Brilliantly written, I was hooked straight away' Premier Magazine
'Sometimes a character stays with me long after I've closed the book, and Jackie, the hilariously sarcastic but touchingly vulnerable heroine of this wonderful coming of age novel, is one of them' Heat Magazine
'An original voice, and a wonderful book for readers to discover' Gaby Koppel
'It's so difficult to do funny and moving but Fran Hill nails it… I enjoyed every word of it' Trevor Wood
'A heartbreaking and yet funny novel written with honesty and yet real empathy' Anna Domingo