Do you sometimes wonder why life is so terrible these days? If so, Middle-Class Hell and How to Cure It may be the book for you. Mark Hanlon has written a book which falls into two sharply contrasting parts. The first is a vivid, idiosyncratic and often hilarious memoir of Hanlon's own life, from a boyhood in a Hartlepool populated by fearsome tea-swilling grannies, through an Oxford education with a champagne-dispensing tutor in Modern History, to work as a City lawyer in the company of ‘the Old Lady' - a larger-than-life mentor with a relaxed attitude to ‘her' career. The second part steps back from these affectionate portraits of ‘Hell' to show you how you can, on the contrary, get everything you want from life, in your career, in relationships, and in your sense of purpose - just by asking for it.