About the book, Old Girls Behaving Badly 
- Publisher : Boldwood Books (May 13, 2024)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 280 pages
A delightfully heartwarming and funny story that proves it’s never too late to change the habits of a lifetime, perfect for fans of Judy Leigh, Hazel Prior and Maddie Please.
Something old, something new, something stolen…?
Gina Knight is looking forward to the prospect of retirement with her husband of forty-three years. Until, to her surprise, said husband decides he needs to ‘find himself’ – alone – and disappears to Santa Fe, leaving divorce papers in his wake.
Now Gina needs a new role in life, not to mention somewhere to live, so she applies for the position of Companion to elderly Dorothy Reed. At eighty-three, ‘Dot’ needs someone to help her around the house – or at least, her family seems to think so. Her companion’s first role would be to accompany Dot for a week-long extravagant wedding party.
But when Georgina arrives at the large Norfolk estate where the wedding will take place, she quickly discovers Dot has an ulterior motive for hiring her. While the other guests are busy sipping champagne and playing croquet, Dot needs Georgina to help her solve a mystery – about a missing painting, which she believes is hidden somewhere in the house.
Because, after all, who would suspect two old ladies of getting up to mischief?
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About the author, Kate Galley 
Kate Galley writes UpLit and Bookclub fiction full of heart and humour. The older generation are at the centre of her stories and are usually wrapped up in a mystery.
She lives with her family in Buckinghamshire and works part time as a mobile hairdresser in the surrounding Chiltern villages.
In her spare time she crochets blankets, knits jumpers and also disappears into her workshop to play with kiln formed glass.
Kate is the author of The Second Chance Holiday Club – which has been optioned for TV – and The Golden Girls’ Road Trip.
Connect with Kate:
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My Thoughts 
There’s a meme going around which reads, “Your time on earth is limited. Don’t try to age with grace. Age with mischief, audacity, and a good story to tell.” Gina and Dorothy, the two women at the heart of this novel are perfect representations of that thought. Gina is 71 when her husband asks for a divorce and, in an attempt to rebuild her life, answers an ad to be a companion for an older woman. The woman in question, Dorothy, is in her eighties and while her faculties seem fine, she did have a fall that has her children concerned.
What I liked about this novel is that it’s a love story but not in the romantic sense. Rather it’s the story of each of these women learning to love themselves, and the loving friendship they form through the course of the novel, which also has a wedding, business betrayals, adult children having issues about their parents’ divorce, and many other every-day dramas.
Author Kate Galley has given us a pair of vivid central characters, who are refreshingly authentic and timeless in the way the best writing always is. As someone who is inching ever closer to being Gina’s age, I was tickled to see older women portrayed with vitality and curiosity. As someone who lives in Florida, where there is a very large population of retirees, I see such women every day, and both of these characters felt like the same people I sit next to in the nail salon, or are at the next table and whatever lunch spot I take my mother to.
Also worthy of note was the pacing. This book moved well – it’s a relatively fast read, but felt much shorter than its 280 (in print) pages, never dragging.
Over all, this is a solid novel, perfect for summer reading, and it kept my interest all the way through.
Goes well with: strawberry shortcake.
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