Things I Need You to Know

You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone

Birdie McBride seems to have it all: a fulfilling and lucrative job, five healthy daughters and a doting husband, Ned, at home keeping the family machine running smoothly.

But then Ned dies. He leaves behind a document for Birdie—‘Things I Need You to Know’—full of guidance on everything from household maintenance to the intimate details of each daughter’s emotional landscape. Composed in his dying days, it’s his last act of fatherly devotion. Reading Ned’s manual, Birdie falls for her husband in a way she never did when he was alive. Yet the presence of his best friend, Marcello, complicates things. As well as having been Ned’s doctor, Marcello is Birdie’s ex-lover—though not as ‘ex’ as most people would think. And his feelings for Birdie are as strong as ever.

When more calamities rock her family, Birdie starts to wonder: how much trust can you put in feelings? And in old friends? Can the legacy of ‘Things I Need You to Know’ save her family from the catastrophic end barrelling towards them?

Mark Lamprell is a writer of novels and children’s books published in sixteen countries and twelve languages. He also works internationally as a writer and director in film, with movie credits including Babe Pig in the City, My Mother Frank, Goddess, A Few Less Men and Never Too Late.

‘All the beauty and wonder of female relations.’ Age on The Secret Wife

‘Gorgeous and heartfelt…A portrait of individual crisis and family dysfunctionality.' Weekend Australian on The Full Ridiculous