"Yummy Mummy" author says chick lit isn't bad

By Belinda Goldsmith

SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) - Author Polly Williams found herself quickly branded as a "chick lit" writer after her debut novel "The Yummy Mummy" became an overnight sensation, but she says it's not a bad label.

Since her debut novel in 2006, Williams, 32, has written two more books, both dealing with modern-day complications faced by women: "A Bad Bride's Tale" about marrying the wrong man at the right time and "A Good Girl Comes Undone" about a career woman.

Williams, who moved to writing after a career in journalism, lives in London with her husband and two young sons. She spoke to Reuters about juggling families and writing:

Q: Since your book, the term "Yummy Mummy" seems to be everywhere. Did you come up with it?

A: "No. I plucked it out of the cultural soup and wrote a novel about it. I came along at just the right moment. It was one of those phrases bandied about in reference to celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow and it went from celebrity culture to a much wider phenomenon -- women in their early 30s with children who had had a career and took that attitude from the workplace into motherhood."

Q: You went backwards in life from motherhood in "Yummy Mummy" to marriage in "A Bad Bride's Tale" then to the workplace in "A Good Girl Comes Undone." Was that deliberate?

A: "I decided to go back as I didn't want to write another mum book so I went back to the anxieties that some women have when it comes to getting married, and then to the politics of the workplace and difficulties faced when a women earns more than her man and how that affects her sex life and desire."

Q: Are the heroines in your three books similar?