Witty, lyrical and heartbreaking, Playing with the Grown-ups is a modern coming-of-age story from Sophie Dahl, the international supermodel and grand-daughter of Roald Dahl.
To Kitty, growing up at Hay House, surrounded by doting relations, is heaven. But for Marina, Kitty's silver-eyed mother, younger and more beautiful than other mothers, it is simply boredom. Though a string of suitors keeps the phone ringing all day long, she craves novelty, excitement, parties.
Swami-ji, Marina's guru, sees her future in New York and so the family is scooped up and relocated, leaving Kitty exiled in boarding school hell. Reprieve comes in the form of the guru's summons to the ashram, but then, just as Kitty is approaching enlightenment, they are off again, leaving everything behind to come back to London. And this time, no man, drug or cocktail can staunch Marina's hunger for a happiness that proves all too elusive. And Kitty, turning fourteen, must choose: whether to play dangerous games with the grown ups or to finally put herself first.
