The Modern Gir1 Guide to Life Sarah-Kate Lynch’s plans to become an international supermodel and perhaps marry the crown prince of an obscure European principality were abandoned in 1999 when she was offered the chance to write a regular column for the New Zealand Womanc Weekly. Crown princes everywhere were delighted, but their loss was the Weekly’s gain and over the years the column has grown in popularity to the point where Sarah-Kate is now mugged by adoring fans wherever she goes, and she has men’s underpants thrown at her, too. Well, some fell on her once. From a balcony. Anyway, ver the years she has written about knickers, diets, baldness, barbecues, girly weekends, cocktails, Christmas and personalised plates. And that’s just in a single column. She has turned her eye on husbands, wine, DIY, swearing and The Sound ofMusic, among other things, and could quite possibly get a PhD in hair removal. Sometimes the trials of everyday life can send a modern girl to bed with a gallon of gin, but with this collection of columns at her side, she won’t want to stay there. For more than a day. Sarah-Kate has also published two successful novels with Random House: Finding Tom Connor and BlessedAre. Oh, and the thing about the adoring fans might not be true.