FOUR MUMS IN A BOAT

by Helen Butters, Niki Doeg, Frances Davies and Janette Benaddi (HQ Books £16.99)

HERE’S an unusual sporting memoir of an even more unusual sporting event. Four Yorkshire women with four husbands, eight children, five dogs, two cats and a gerbil between them, decide to row across the Atlantic, ‘not to escape life, but for life not to escape us’.

They come across as a bright and funny set of friends with the foibles and eccentricities of normal people: one was chronically seasick, another hated sharks so much she never went in the sea on holiday.

They rowed two hours on, two hours off for 3,000 miles. Most fascinating are the before and after photos — two months, and they look more alive.

You’ll enjoy reading about their tribulations in the warmth of your own house, cradling a glass of wine and not even contemplating spending the next few months on an 8m x 1.5m boat . . .