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The Battle for Big School
The Battle for Big School
Jun 17, 2025 3:25 PM

Author:Sarah Tucker

The Battle for Big School

There are 50 places at The Oaks, the best grammar school in Letchbury, and 1,000 children applying. Competition is fierce and parents are prepared to do anything and everything to get their child one of the coveted spaces.

Close friends Lily, Julie, Karen and house husband Paul aren't overly concerned. After all, aren't their children bright and sociable enough? But they're quickly shaken out of their complacency when enrolment time approaches and turns out to be little more than a rigged lottery, where only the most ruthless hold the cards. Marriages and friendships crumble under the pressure, fake addresses are abound and tutors rates soar.

As measures get more and more extreme, the four quickly rally their troops and throw themselves into the battle for big school. Initially wary to be in competition with each other, they realise that the only way of out-smarting the rest of the pack is by coming up with a plan. Because getting their kids into The Oaks will demand determination and strategy akin to Mission Impossible ...

Reviews

Scandal, backstabbing, illicit affairs ... a fab, girlie read!

—— New Woman

Mums will be able to see the truth behind this fun novel

—— In The Know

A real laugh-out-loud tale

—— OK! Magazine

funny and engaging

—— www.richmondmagazine.co.uk

Playground fighting goes beyond the school gates in this fun, feisty read. A group of parents risk marriage and friendship to win coveted places for their kids at top grammar school The Oaks.

—— Sky Magazine

This really is a must-read - entertaining, humorous and topical!

—— My Weekly

entertaining ... an enjoyable read

—— Ilford Recorder Series

Part social commentary, part mystery and part dangerous liaison, this poignant story casts an unflinching gaze at the historic treatment of mental health disorders.

—— Financial Times

Such a magnificent setting definitely demands a story that delivers, all guns blazing. It does, and then some . . . Fiction at it’s finest.

—— Irish Independent

Beautiful

—— Stylist

An exquisite love story

—— Good Housekeeping

A terrifying, moving and uplifting story

—— February Hot Read , Woman and Home

A poignant against-the-odds love story

—— Glamour

Tender . . . Hope is the emotion that unspools the delicate connections between these brilliantly drawn characters

—— Psychologies Magazine

The Ballroom is a beautifully wrought novel, a tender, heartbreaking and insightful exploration of the longings that survive in the most inhospitable environments.

—— Sunday Express 5/5 stars

Magnificent…a luminary of historical fiction…writing history from the margins, the personal stories behind the era, she delivers profound, poignant stories that stir the emotions.

—— Press Association

All the intensity and lyricism of Hope’s debut, Wake

—— Daily Mail

The Ballroom confirms her as a novelist of immense power...Exquisitely good. Sensitive, engrossing and highly recommended

—— Metro

The Ballroom is a beautiful, gripping, heart-wrenching, thought-provoking book. I was so enthralled, I read it in an evening, unwilling to put it down.

—— thewritesofwoman.wordpress.com

An atmospheric and thought provoking love story

—— bookslifeandeverything.blogspot.co.uk

An absorbing read from beginning to end . . . I'm already excited to see what Anna Hope does next.

—— thetattooedbook.blogspot.co.uk

This novel is at once romantic, thought-provoking and extremely poignant, with a rich narrative and an ending that moved me to tears

—— culturefly.co.uk

Gripping final chapters ramp up the suspense towards a hearth-wrenching conclusion ...explores the tensions and trials of the human condition with grace and insight.

—— New York Times

Absolutely fantastic . . . I'm in real awe of her writing.

—— Elizabeth Macneal, author of THE DOLL FACTORY

A romantic and fulfilling story, beautifully told. Isabelle writes with a humorous eye, and the evocative poignancy of her writing brought Holly's story vividly to life. I was hooked from first word until final page and was left with tears on my face and an urgent need for a holiday!

—— Katie Marsh, author of My Everything

A mysterious legacy, family secrets and slow-burning romance - My Map of You's the next best thing to a one-way ticket to Zakynthos, the Greek island that makes a perfect setting

—— Fanny Blake, Author and Books Editor for Woman & Home

Witty and big-hearted . . . leaves you smiling for days

—— Maria Semple, author of , Where’d You Go, Bernadette

For those unable to jet off to a Spanish island this summer, reading The Vacationers may be the next-best thing. . . . [A] gorgeously written novel . . . When I turned the last page, I felt as I often do when a vacation is over: grateful for the trip and mourning its end

—— The New York Times Book Review

Delicious . . . richly riveting . . . The Vacationers offers all the delights of a fluffy, read-it-with-sunglasses-on-the-beach read, made substantial by the exceptional wit, insight, intelligence and talents of its author

—— People (four stars)

I loved The Vacationers; funny and poignant and beautifully observed

—— Jojo Moyes, author of , Me Before You

Straub's novel is cast from the same mould as the likes of Liza Klaussmann's Tigers in Red Weather and Maggie Shipstead's Seating Arrangements . . . The Vacationers is a holiday read in every way with a gently witty narrative that slips down as easily as a beachside cocktail

—— Independent

Emma Straub is a gorgeous and witty storyteller

—— Elizabeth Gilbert

Intimate, epic, beautifully observed

—— Jennifer Egan

Witty and big-hearted ... leaves you smiling for days

—— Maria Semple

Charming and absorbing

—— Maggie Shipstead

Funny, poignant and beautifully observed

—— Jojo Moyes
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