World Book Day - But Not THIS Mother's Day!

Today is World Book Day. How I miss being in school and enjoying the fun with the kids. Dressing up as literary characters, enjoying favourite passages read aloud...I have already been asked for costume suggestions by a few young Mums who are FB friends. Maybe in a few years, Rosie will ask Gran to make her an outfit, you never know. 
I thought I would do a book review anyway. I picked up a Hilary Mantel novel as a 50p CS bargain recently. It turns out to be her first - obviously republished since her Booker Prize successes.
I really enjoyed both Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies - so I looked forward to seeing what what her first novel would be like. 
Motherhood being Hot Topic in the family right now, "Every Day Is Mother's Day" seemed like it might be apposite.

Well, forget it. And definitely do not pass it on to anyone in the later stages of pregnancy/early stages of motherhood. 
It is grim, dark, gloomy, full of characters in various stages of neurosis and insanity. Manipulative relationships, domestic violence, family breakdowns, excessive alcohol consumption [mind you, that was a party for teachers at half term, so understandable]

The lives of the characters are impossibly intertwined - Teacher X is involved in Road Accident with Social Worker Ms Q who is mistress of his colleague Teacher Y, who is brother to batty spinster Miss Y who lives next door to agoraphobic Mrs Z, the mother of Miss Z, who is client of Social Worker Ms Q.

The tin opener on the cover is quite incidental, and I think is only mentioned once, lying on the kitchen table. Yes she has a great vocabulary, yes she has some interesting sentences. But please don't buy it as a gift for your Mum this weekend, even if she did have a crush on Damien Lewis playing Henry VIII in Wolf Hall! Mantel says parts of it were drawn from her own experience. Poor, poor lady, I genuinely feel sorry for her if that is so.
I can only rate it at * I am afraid