Aylesbury Vale GP and mum set to release latest comedy novel offering humorous take on menopause

Nancy Peach, who lives near Buckingham, is releasing Hot Mother on 24 July, following up her previous novels, The Mother of All Problems and Love Life.

As a GP, Nancy regularly sees women who feel they are “not doing the menopause right”, including many younger women who are concerned about what is in store for them. In Hot Mother she seeks to address many of the issues facing middle-aged women in a humorous and light-hearted way.

Nancy’s book focuses on Penny, a mother of three who is taking care of her youngsters, as well as elderly parents, while trying to live her own life.

To add to the chaos, she is now approaching menopause and when she is not drowning in her own sweat or feeling an irrational fury at her husband’s triathlon training regime, she is being ignored by half the population due to a newly discovered phenomenon unique to the middle-aged woman – total invisibility.

She is also trying to take in advice from well-meaning, but very opinionated friends - one, evangelical about HRT (Hormone replacement therapy) and testosterone patches, another who swears that perimenopause is a natural part of life best managed with mindfulness and herbs.

Nancy has been writing as a hobby for as long as she can remember, her previous work The Mother of All Problems, which was published in 2023 by Hera, was described as “‘Moving, romantic and very funny,” by a fellow author.

This book looked at how trying to raise a family, alongside a ‘sometimes oblivious’ husband, and caring for a mother with dementia could push someone to exhaustion. Nancy drew on autobiographical inspiration, in part, for the fictional story, as her own mother was diagnosed with the disease when Nancy was in her 30s and her mum was in her 60s.

Ahead of the book’s release Nancy will be hosting an evening at the Waterstones store in Milton Keynes on 10 July. She has also been booked as part of the Buckingham Literary Festival on 15 June.

When not writing, parenting, or working for the NHS and a cancer charity, Nancy can be found looking after what she describes as various ridiculous-looking pets.