Mud is a book in diary form and opens with the sentence: "This diary is the last birthday present Mum ever gave me, three years ago when I was ten." What follows is the story of processing that grief and dealing with her changing circumstances - her father's new relationship and moving out of their house and on to a barge - all observed by our narrator, Lydia who is thirteen when the book opens. Technically the book probably falls into the genre of young adult fiction but it is engaging and well written for a wider readership. The Guardian says of it: "This original and tender comic novel is an apparent contradiction: a hugely funny story about grief, parental alcoholism and loneliness."