My life as a wife: Love, liquor and what to do about other women

Born in London during the Blitz, Elisabeth Luard ' step-daughter of a British diplomat and reluctant debutante in her teens - was working as an office typist at Private Eye when she fell for the 'King of Satire' Nicholas Luard.

At just twenty-one years old, she married him. As the pioneer of Britain's satire movement, Nicholas was intelligent, handsome and charismatic, yet he was also unreliable, a philanderer and very often only just ahead of the bank.

Their life together may not always have been easy, but it was certainly never dull.

Tracing the fascinating years they spent together in London to their years in Spain, France, the Hebrides and Wales with their four children, Luard's frank and bittersweet memoir takes us through the best and the worst of their marriage, and chronicles Nicholas's devastating descent into alcoholism.

Yet this is also a story of hope as well as sadness - the healing power of children, the comfort and pleasure of good food and the simple joy of making life work.

Both honest and tender, it is an account of a life shared and, above all, of a love story with flaws.