Hug me while I weep for I weep for the world - Bel Littlejohn

Sometimes poignant, never less than tragic, often brave and always searingly honest: these are the qualities that have made Bel Littlejohn Britain's best-loved columnist. Part self-help guide, part heartfelt, brutally frank reappraisal of her life to date, Ms Littlejohn deals with such issues as: Diana, Princess of Wales: 'She taught us how to laugh and how to cry, and the difference between the two'; Coping with a Living Mother at Christmas-time; and Gordon Brown's Desert Island Disc, 'Je t'aime moi non plus', Louise Woodward. 'I wept; you wept; he or she wept; we wept; you plural wept; they all wept.' and Living with a Verucca, Bel's searingly honest long-running, OBSERVER column.

HUG ME WHILE I WEEP...FOR I WEEP FOR THE WORLD is about nothing less than the emotional rebirth of New Britain, as chronicled by the woman who acted as its midwife.