Things I Need You to Know

Birdie McBride has it all: a fulfilling job, five healthy daughters and a doting husband, Ned.

But then Ned dies. He leaves behind a document for Birdie—‘Things I Need You To Know’—a guide to everything from household maintenance to each daughter’s emotional landscape. It’s his last act of fatherly devotion.

Reading Ned’s manual, Birdie falls in love with her husband in a way she never did when he was alive. Yet the presence of his best friend, Marcello, complicates things.

As Marcello steps into Ned´s shoes, Birdie starts to wonder: how much trust can you put in instinct? Will her past come back to torment her? Can the legacy of ‘Things I Need You To Know’ save her family from catastrophe?

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