The Bluffer's Guide to Divorce
By David Mitchell
 
Extracts from the book

 
Till death do us part
Divorce is rather like bereavement and the legal process is similar to waiting for the funeral; but those who grieve usually need to see the body buried before they can start to come to terms and rebuild.
 
Consolation prize
The good bluffer in divorce will know his or her emotional onions. Onions make you cry Æ so does divorce. Almost all separating and divorcing couples will ride their personal show-stopping roller coaster of Shock, Anger, Grief, Depression. The symptoms are usually in that order and may well continue to repeat until the emotional scars have at least started to gain a new layer of protective skin.
 
Council president
Keen observers will find that solicitors in family work will almost certainly be women - on the basis that the book of Common Prayer says: 'Those whom God has joined together, let no man put asunder.'
 
In triplicate
The contents of the former matrimonial home (or 'fmh' if you want to embrace the jargon) tend to assume the kind of importance that makes perfectly rational people become wild-eyed anarchists. Deciding which parent should have the children pales into insignificance beside the preferred destination of the dining room table. Do not even think to raise the matter of the marital bed.
 
Powerhouse?
Scratch any child of separated parents (metaphorically speaking) and you will find their particular -nirvana is for their mother and father to be back together again. When the said child is told that reconciliation is off todayÍs menu, the second and most usual question is for one or the other parent to enquire, with or without subtlety, whether the child wishes to be with Mum or Dad. As night follows day the questioning parent will be reassured that they are the chosen one. So thatÍs all right then Æ until the other parent asks and receives the identical response, which puts everyone back to square one.
 
Reviews

 
The Bluffer's Guides take a light-hearted look at the subject, yet there is a great deal of useful information.
The Sunday Independent
 
 
 
Table of Contents
 

Introduction
Brief Background

The Process
Splitting Up
Preliminaries
Reconciliation
Counselling
Mediation

Separation and Divorce
The Statistics
The Grounds
Issuing the Petition
The Decree Nisi
The Decree Absolute
Nullity

The Children
Directions
Hearing
CAFCASS
Contact

Financial and All That
Taking Advice
Disclosure
Court Order or Separation Deed
Consent Order
FDR
Final Hearing
The Contents
Pensions
Bankruptcy
Big Money!
Calderbank Offers
Money Laundering

Domestic Violence
Civil Remedies
Criminal Remedies

The Foreign Bits
Jurisdiction
Scotland
Ireland
Brussels II

The Legal Players
Solicitors
Legal Executives
Barristers
QCs
Judges

The Victims
The Shocked
The Calm
The Raging
The Aggressive
The Martyr
The Gently Downtrodden
The Indecisive
The Convoluted
The Changeling
The Unforgiving Mother
The Caring Absent Father
The Blinkered Absent Father
The Perfect

The Glossary

 
Author: David Mitchell
Format: 64 pages, pb
Published: March 2006
NEW TITLE
Price: £3.99
ISBN-10 & ISBN-13:
1-903096-44-8
978-1-903096-44-4
  
About the author
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Table of contents
  
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