Irma Kurtz
Irma Kurtz joined Cosmopolitan as agony aunt in 1972 and has been there ever since. A regular on BBC Radio 4 (for which she wrote and presented a 10-part series, Mediterranean Tales), she has written three self-help books, two novels and three travel books.

Michele Hanson’s mother Clarice decided that rather than being miserable whilst paying for a care home she could be miserable for free living with her daughter and granddaughter, which she did from the age of 88 until her death, aged 99. Living with Mother charts the very funny but poignant and slow deterioration of Clarice in her role as Faultfinder General, Head Chef and Anxiety Queen. Michele’s daughter Amy also contributed a piece to the book.


In conversation with Irma Kurtz, Arlene Heyman, New York psychoanalyst and Bernard Malamud’s muse, introduces her debut collection of short stories, revealing what really goes on in people’s minds, relationships and their beds. Raw, tender, funny, truthful and often shocking, Scary Old Sex is a fierce exploration of the chaos and beauty of life.