In There's a Bear in There, Merridy won our hearts with her all-too-true story of the ex-Playschool presenter's eye-opening experience as a receptionist in a Sydney brothel. Then in Ridiculous Expectations she made us cringe with delight as the naive Australian author was thrust into the unforgiving London literary scene, and finally, (wonderfully) fell in love. Now based in Munich with adoring husband and adorable son, Merridy drags us headlong into the world of an ex-pat mum grappling with excruciating language barriers and a culture that is, at times, nothing short of bizarre. With her gift for sharply-observed characterisation, Merridy has a field-day with the Bavarians: the garbage-men who knock on your door for days, weeks, even months in pursuit of their Christmas tip (woe betide the hapless householder who doesn't pay up!); the endemic don't mention the war' attitude; and the propensity for the strait-laced locals to regularly take their clothes off in public. Then there are the gently eccentric in-laws who take Merridy to afternoon tea at Dachau (the castle, not the concentration camp) and, of course, frequent drop-ins by Merridy's own family who are, frankly, barking mad. How Now, Brown Frau? is a whole new take on a country that we know so much and yet so little about. It is also a poignant, revealing and hilarious portrait of a forty-something first-time mother struggling to make a life in a strange, strange land.
