"Meet the Newmans peels back the smile of America’s favourite TV housewife to reveal a timely, feminist story about love, power and finally daring to rewrite the script."
Dinah Newman stands in her pristine Toluca Lake kitchen, burning dinner for her husband Del despite shelves lined with cookbooks. The irony is delicious: the most famous cook in America, spokesperson for Hotpoint appliances and Pyrex cookware, can’t feed her own family.
For twenty years, 20 million Americans have gathered at 8:30pm to join the Newmans - first on CBS Radio, then on television. America’s favourite couple. The perfect family. But after 23 years of marriage, they’re sleeping in separate beds. Money troubles simmer. Their sons - steady Guy, 22, and craftier Shep, 17 - circle the fractures.
The lifestyle Dinah performs on screen belongs to another era. Ratings are in freefall. They're about to be canned. Cancelled. Their sponsors are jumping ship.
In 1964, women still can’t open their own bank accounts, serve on juries in many states, access legal abortion, or take action against sexual harassment. They are trusted to raise children but not to control money or their own bodies. And yet Dinah’s show perpetuates the fantasy of cheerful domestic submission.
Enter Juliet Dunne, a young reporter at the Los Angeles Times, navigating a newsroom where “no skirt has ever written for the news and no skirt ever will.” She loves journalism, despite the whispers and antiquated attitudes. She blames women like Dinah for not kicking the door open wider for the rest.
Then Del is in a car accident. Del who writes and directs the show. Who crafts every episode. Who controls every aspect of their lives. On and off screen. And Dinah steps forward. Steps up. Does the unthinkable. Takes control. She hires Juliet to help her write a revolutionary final episode.
This is a sharp, moving exploration of love, expectation and feminism. At opposite ends of womanhood in 1964 America, Dinah and Juliet must decide whether they can rewrite not just a television show, but the story they’ve been handed. It's Lessons in Chemistry, with a sprinkle of Mad Men: and I loved it.
| Primary Genre | Modern and Contemporary Fiction |
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Win a Copy of The Sisters of Hope Square by Faith Hogan and a Bucket List Scratch Book
Closing date: 04/07/2026
You've seen the show. Now meet the woman behind the scenes . . .
From #1 Sunday Times bestselling author Jennifer Niven, a novel about America’s favorite TV family, whose perfect façade starts to crack, for fans of Lessons in Chemistry and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.
Los Angeles, 1964.
For two decades, Del and Dinah Newman and their sons, Guy and Shep, have ruled television as America’s Favourite Family. Millions of viewers tune in every week to watch them play flawless, black-and-white versions of themselves. But now the Sixties are in full swing, and the Newmans’ perfection suddenly feels woefully out of touch.
Ratings are in free fall, as are the Newmans themselves. Del is keeping an explosive secret from his wife, and Dinah is slowly going numb. Steady, stable Guy is hiding the truth about his love life, and rock ‘n' roll idol Shep may finally be in real trouble.
When Del is in a mysterious car accident, Dinah decides to take matters into her own hands. She hires Juliet Dunne, an outspoken young reporter, to help her write the final episode. But Dinah and Juliet have wildly different perspectives about what it means to be a woman, and a family, in 1964 America.
Can Dinah Newman bring her family together to change television history?
Or will she be cancelled before she ever had the chance?
Maybe it’s time for perfection to fall out of style . . .
Meet the Newmans features in the following genres: Audiobooks of the Month, Family Drama, Historical Fiction, Humorous Fiction, Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Narrative theme: Love and relationships
Meet the Newmans is available in Paperback, Hardback, Audiobook
Meet the Newmans was written by Jennifer Niven and published by Macmillan an imprint of Pan Macmillan
Meet the Newmans has 389 pages
£17.09
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