The complete book of mothers-in-law - Luisa Dillner

Most of us either have a mother-in-law or will be one, and it's not a role most women take on gladly. Mothers-in-law are traditionally the butt of jokes, declared to be nasty, possessive and interfering - but are they really as bad as this reputation suggests? Luisa Dillner looks beyond the stereotype of the mother-in-law and finds they come in many different varieties, from loveable and loyal to lonely, ferocious and scheming. She traces their history, from Ancient Greece and Rome to modern times, through fairy tales and traditions, in this celebration of this most complicated of relationships.

Luisa Dillner is the author of The Complete Book of Mothers-in-law and is a columnist for the Guardian. Her proper job is working on new ideas
for the British Medical Journal Publishing Group. She has been a
contributor to many magazines and newspapers, including Vogue, Cosmopolitan
and the Observer and has written a book about relationships based on her Guardian column called Love by Numbers. She originally trained and worked as doctor in Bristol. She now lives in London with her family.