It is Christmas Eve at 14 Camberley Road, north London. The Townsend children have hung up the last strand of tinsel and now, in the firelight, all is softly aglow with the magic and mystery of Christmas. And then their mother staggers home. Caroline Townsend, ex-beauty, failed actress, divorcée and almost alcoholic is fighting drunk and has just been jilted by her lover. Will Christmas be doomed again this year? It's time for desperate measures . . . Wildly funny, completely original and full of insights about marriage, adolescence and the lethal defenses we all use to hide behind, Mothertime is worth a decade of psychotherapyand far more entertaining.