What Women Want

A funny and moving book that Australian women of all generations will love.

With all the moxie of an RSL barmaid and the library card of a research fellow, Nelly Thomas has emerged to talk about nothing slighter than the trials of her generation… She’s erudite, earthy and entirely unemployable. Helen Razer - The Age (review Melb Comedy Festival)

Growing up in post-feminist Australia, Nelly Thomas, one of Australia’s most gifted and natural comedians, was told she could ‘have it all’. She’s giving it a crack - but she still isn’t quite sure what ‘it’ is.

What do women want?

In pursuit of answers, Thomas has tried being a telemarketer, a professional student, a fast-food worker, a broadcaster, a smoker, a prostitute’s confidant, a health advocate, a reality television obsessive, a mother, a partner (or is it girlfriend? lover?), an award-winning comedian, a sex-educator, a Loony Lefty Feminista and a self-confessed fatty boombah. Like many of her generation, she’s had a lot of options, yet she’s wondering - which do you choose?

In this hilarious part-memoir, part-manifesto, Thomas navigates the murky waters of her life and womanhood in the twenty-first century. She tackles the big contemporary issues - career, equality, family, porn, sex, entertainment, obesity, parenting, culture, class, Beyonce’s derriere - with customary insight and a wickedly dry wit.

A must-read for the modern Aussie woman.