Williams, Polly 1971-

PERSONAL: Born 1971; children: Oscar.

CAREER: Writer and journalist. Scene magazine (now defunct), creator and editor; worked at Frank, Punch, You, and In Style magazines.

WRITINGS

NOVELS

The Yummy Mummy, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2006. The Egg Race, Sphere (Great Britain), 2007.

Contributor to periodicals.

SIDELIGHTS: Polly Williams was inspired to write her first novel, The Yummy Mummy, by the birth of her son, Oscar. “Because he was tiny and slept a lot, I wrote, mostly rubbish,” the author reveals on her official home page. “My light bulb moment came when I realised I couldn’t find the novel I wanted to read, a novel about the contradictory and messy business of being a new mum in the twenty-first century. And so I started The Yummy Mummy.” The novel tells the story of Amy Crane, who, six months after the birth of her first child, finds herself rejecting her fellow dowdy mommies and turning to the “chic” mommy set as she diets, buys clothes, exercises, and even has Botox injections. In the process she seems to be alienating Joe, her boyfriend and the father of her child, who may be having an affair. In a review of The Yummy Mummy in Publishers Weekly, a contributor noted that the author’s “wit and Amy’s appealing foibles will make readers stick around.” A Kirkus Reviews contributor wrote that “there are some clever and endearing moments between mother and child.” Amy Brozio-Andrews, writing in the Library Journal, commented that the “narrative is flush with self-deprecating humor, label namedropping, and characters embodying all manner of modern motherhood.”

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2006, review of The Yummy Mummy, p. 1045.

Library Journal, November 15, 2006, Amy Brozio-Andrews, review of The Yummy Mummy, p. 60.

Publishers Weekly, October 16, 2006, review of The Yummy Mummy, p. 32.

ONLINE

Polly Williams Home Page, http://www.pollywilliams.com (January 30, 2007).*