Rachel's Holiday

Life is good for Rachel Walsh. She has regular congress with Luke Costello, a man who wears his leather trousers tight. And she’s fond – some might say too fond – of recreational drugs.

When she finds herself being frogmarched to Dublin’s answer to the Betty Ford Clinic, she’s outraged.

But on the plus side, it’s bound to be full of celebrities in search of their inner child.

What Rachel isn’t expecting is middle-aged men in brown jumpers and more group therapy than you can shake a stick at. Who cares for introspection when the view is damaged and broken?

Heartsick and Luke-sick, Rachel is airlifted from addiction to the unfamiliar terrain of adulthood, via a love story or two, in a novel by turns poignant, powerful and very, very funny.