Living with Mother: Right to the Very End

From bowel trouble to views on Camilla Parker-Bowles, life is never dull in the Household from Hell. A glamorous and much-admired young woman, in old age Michele’s mother still has power over everyone she meets. She alternately despairs of and adores her granddaughter, and treats her daughter, now 63, as though she is 12. Michele observes the very slow decline of her mother, as she changes from vibrant, bossy, hilarious fault-finder general and head chef to frail, bedridden, helpless, speechless, but still formidable and brave old lady who is able, to the very end, to have a laugh. Also included here is a piece by Michele’s daughter Amy, by turns hilarious and touching, about living with her grandmother and coping with the changes that come. Speaking with emotional candor and gentle poignancy, Michele tells it like it is somewhere between anguish and hope, tragedy and comedy, tears and laughter.