Peony Pinker is fed up with her family. Her mum's working
long hours setting up her gardening business and her dad isn't pulling his
weight around the house, so they're arguing all the time. Her big sister,
Primrose, is stressed about her exams and taking it out on everyone else
including her lovely boyfriend Matt. Peony's Gran tells her you can choose your
friends but not your family; as you can't have the family you want, you have to
learn to want the family you've got. 'Not possible!' thinks Peony. But Gran is sure she'll think
of something. As most of Gran's ideas go horribly wrong, Peony
knows there will be even more trouble ahead...

It's winter and the Pinkers are out of shape - so Dad decides to use the whole family to test out his ideas for a new fit-in-four weeks diet book. But after a few weeks of early morning runs and cardboard flavoured ready meals, (meaning Peony needs chips and double helpings of pudding at lunch every day to make up) Peony's become so unfit can barely walk up the hill home. And she's supposed to be climbing Mount Snowdon in just a few weeks! Can Gran get the family back on track with some wise words and common sense? Hilarious family comedy with a self-help twist.

Everyone in Peony Pinker's family wants something. Her dad,
a sports reporter on the local paper, wants to get out of doing the problem
page while the agony aunt is missing; her mum wants to stop working at the
garden centre where all the plants keep dying; and her big sister
Primrose wants to be called Annabel. What Peony wants most in the world - even
more than she wants a dog - is to stop Primrose's nasty new best friend Bianca
from being horrible to her. When Mr Kaminski next door
tells them the secret of how to get what you want, Peony decides it's time to
put a stop to Bianca at last. But can she get what she really wants?

Peony Pinker is not 'cool'. She likes animals and messing about, not fitness routines and celebrity news. But when Dad becomes a celebrity agony aunt, the coolest girls in school invite Peony to join their group. Now she's watching the right films and doing the right activities to fit in... and she hasn't got time for her old friends any more. But is the 'cool' crowd really where Peony wants to be? A funny, thought-provoking story with a subtle self-help theme.