For the first time, bestselling novelist, columnist, and humorist Lesley Crewe’s finest newspaper columns are collected in one place. Not merely razor sharp, Lesley’s wit is also ocean wide, taking in everything from the humiliations of breast pumping to the indignities of aging, from the frantic excess of holiday preparations to the homey irritations of a long marriage. As precise in her observations as Jane Austen and as fractious on occasion as Oscar the Grouch, Crewe also has a sweet, tender centre, taking us from a hearty laugh to a good cry in a single paragraph. Readers will relate to Crewe’s ache at missing her mom, her nostalgia for her childhood, her frustrations at raising teenagers, and her impatience for terrible parking lot etiquette in equal measure. The book spans sixteen years’ worth of columns for The Cape Bretoner Magazine, Cahoots Magazine, and The Chronicle Herald. Are You Kidding Me?! is a side-splitting, heartwarming, Cape Breton–flavoured celebration of the little things.
Author
Lesley grew up in Montreal, PQ. After graduating from Concordia University with a degree in English and Education, she and her hubby settled down in Homeville, Cape Breton and raised a family. From 2000-2005, Lesley was a features writer and columnist (Home Fires) for Cape Bretoner Magazine, and from 2005-2009, a columnist (Lesley's Letters) with the on-line magazine, Cahoots. In 2005 her first novel, Relative Happiness, was published by Vagrant Press, the fiction imprint of Nimbus Publishing. It was an instant bestseller, and was shortlisted for the Margaret and John Savage First Book Award. She has since written nine other novels. In 2012, Relative Happiness was optioned for film, and in 2014, Lesley's characters came to life on the big screen. The movie was produced by Wreckhouse Productions, directed by Deanne Foley, and stars Australian Melissa Bergland (Winners and Losers), and homegrown Canadian talent like Susan Kent (This Hour has 22 Minutes), Jonathan Torrens (Mr. D, Trailer Park Boys), and Rob Welles (Trailer Park Boys).
