Beautifully honest and wickedly funny, 'Lucy on Leave' is not your typical journal about illness and recovery. It is certainly not for the faint hearted, either, but not for the reasons that the reader might expect. For those who are going through, or have been through, similar experiences with cancer, this book might be cathartic and even helpful, but mostly delightfully funny. For those who are not, this book, which can be read as a whole or enjoyed as a series of short essays, goes far beyond the subject of Lucy's illness to muse on the ups and downs of motherhood, marriage, childhood and Yorkshire life. If you want to know what the game 'butt waves' entails or how to play 'I demand the Di-mond!' Or why Wakefield, West Yorkshire, beats Paris for culture, hands down, or even what happened when Lucy forgot to wear any underwear to school, you will have to buy this book to find out.