The first in a series about a deeply loveable protagonist, by a writer with an impeccable ear for a real teenage voice Primrose Leary has just started middle school. Likes: her pet rat, Roderick; her best friend, Joel; and being a little bit different (but not in the weird different sense—she wouldn’t like to be the only bald girl in her class or the only girl who always smelled of ham, or anything). Dislikes: living with Fintan (her mustachioed dad), the boy-school that Joel’s toddled off to without her, and not having her mother around any more. Hilariously and cleverly written, Prim Improper is the debut novel from Deirdre Sullivan.

A novel for young people, it follows the adventures of Primrose Leary, a smart and funny 14-year-old, who has typical teenage troubles with friends, frenemies, boys, and clueless dad.

No, don’t DO it! Prim’s alive (though the dashing Roderick is, alas, no more). She’s sixteen. She’s trying to make sense of her mum’s diaries. She is trying desperately to make Joel be friends with her again, but he’s all friends with Karen (aka the devil) now, and Prim’s found a boy called Robb-with-two-bees, and then there’s Steve the Goblin, and her dad’s getting together with you’ll-never-guess-who, and as for what’s going on with Ciara and Syzmon … Everything’s a little imperfect. Desperately funny. Desperately touching. The final instalment in the diaries of Primrose Leary.