Mad cows

Madeleine Wolfe, a new mother, is struggling to raise her baby son, Jack, on her own in London. Hoping for a little cheer, she sets out on a shopping trip, though her funds only stretch to basics. The outing goes badly when she is wrongly arrested for theft at Harrods. She and Jack end up held in the Mother and Baby Unit at Holloway Prison, and the only person she can think of to clear her name is Alex, the father of her child and her former lover.

Relations between Maddy and Alex have never been easy. He has a wife and children he never mentioned, and he is now starting a political career that depends on a clean, respectable image. Even so, she is counting on him to step up when she needs him most.

Mad Cows is a sequel to Foetal Attraction. It is a comic novel by Kathy Lette, the Australian-born writer who lives in London.