Sometimes heartbreaking, often hilarious and always entirely relatable, Prowse details her early struggles with self-esteem and how she coped with the frustrating expectations others had of how she should live. Most poignantly, she delves into her toxic relationship with food, the hardest addiction she has ever known, and how she journeyed out the other side.
You can follow her @mrsamandaprowse on all social media or sign up for her newsletter at http://www.amandaprowse.com. Or follow her on Substack: Tangerine by Amanda Prowse.
Amanda Prowse has built a bestselling career on the lives of fictional women. Now she turns the pen on her own life.
One of the most candid memoirs you’re ever likely to read, Women Like Us provides welcome insight into how it is possible—against the odds—to overcome insecurity, body consciousness and the ubiquitous imposter syndrome to find happiness and success, from a woman who’s done it all, and then some.
A popular TV and radio personality, Amanda is well known for her insightful observations and infectious humour.
I won’t go into many details of Amanda’s experiences. That’s for you to read about for yourself. In some ways, it’s a very ordinary life, in others it’s quite extraordinary. I can see how Amanda is able to write so insightfully and compellingly about ordinary women and their circumstances in her fiction, as she’s lived it herself.
Amanda’s ambition is to create stories that keep people from turning off the bedside lamp at night, that ensure you walk every step with her great characters, and tales that fill your head so you can’t possibly read another book until the memory fades…
The one thing that most people will relate to I’m sure, is the issue of weight and body image. Amanda says she was, or at least felt that she was, heavy and ungainly throughout her formative years. I wasn’t, I was skinny and could eat anything though was never elegant. Now I see photos of myself and wonder how I turned into a fat woman. (Wine and crisps is the answer!) I have to admit that I could feel tears welling up as Amanda talked about how she felt about her body as she could have been writing about me. I am encouraged and inspired by her honesty.
Even just from the title, Amanda Prowse makes this book so relatable. It’s not ‘Women Like Me’, it’s ‘Women Like Us‘. I think this creates a real sense of camaraderie, like we are all part of one sisterhood. She says near the beginning of the book that she learned at an early age what really mattered in life ‘being with people who loved you and whom you loved in return’. This is so true and you can see how that love has supported her through all the challenges of her life. The strong women in her life have clearly been inspirational and I was very touched by the deep love that she and her husband Simeon share.
Amanda is the most prolific writer of bestselling contemporary fiction in the UK today. Her titles consistently score the highest online review approval ratings across several genres.
My Thoughts
Other novels by Amanda Prowse include A Mother’s Story, which won the coveted Sainsbury’s eBook of the Year Award. Perfect Daughter was selected as a World Book Night title in 2016 and The Boy Between a World Book Night title in 2022. She has been described by the Daily Mail as ‘the queen of family drama’.
From her childhood, where there was no blueprint for success, to building a career as a bestselling novelist against all odds, Amanda Prowse explores what it means to be a woman in a world where popularity, slimness, beauty and youth are currency—and how she overcame all of that to forge her own path to happiness.
I’ve read loads of Amanda’s novels and she’s such a brilliant storyteller. I also enjoy her weekly piece called Tangerine where she talks about her everyday life. I find that really relatable and often very funny so I was looking forward to this glimpse into her life through memoir rather than fiction.
About the Book
I’m a very similar age to Amanda so a lot of what she writes about was really familiar to me and so I could really identify with it. Like her, I grew up up in the 70 and 80s. That school toilet paper like squares of tracing paper – what was that all about?! Like me, she was told as a small girl that certain things or ways of behaving were not very ladylike (NVLL) and a lot of that has stuck with her – and me! My own girls just laugh if they hear someone say that now.
I guess the first question to ask is, what kind of woman am I? Well, you know those women who saunter into a room, immaculately coiffed and primped from head to toe?
Amanda Prowse is an internationally bestselling author of twenty-eight novels published in dozens of languages. Her chart-topping titles What Have I Done?, Perfect Daughter, My Husband’s Wife, The Coordinates of Loss, The Girl in the Corner and The Things I Know have sold millions of copies around the world.
I can clearly remember when I was first asked if I would like to receive an early copy of one of Amanda’s books for review. I hadn’t long started blogging and was very flattered to be asked. That book was Another Love, about a woman’s struggle with alcoholism and it had a big impact on me. What Amanda couldn’t have known when she asked me to review was that we were experiencing a very similar situation in our own family at that time. I can honestly say that it was a really accurate portrayal of how alcoholism affects the whole family, not just the person addicted.
Women Like Us is a down-to-earth, moving and insightful read. The last chapter in particular is powerful and uplifting. Thank you Amanda Prowse for such an honest, relatable and touching memoir.
About the Author
If you look behind her, you’ll see me.
