Alpha Mummy: Novelist Jenny Colgan considers how much Myerson should have revealed about her son

Julie Myerson denied authorship of Living with Teenagers three times when questioned by Janice Turner . Yet a careful comparison by The Times of Myerson’s writing and that in Living with Teenagers soon revealed parallels.

Both Myerson and Anonymous are middle class, married and mothers of three — two sons and a daughter. Both live in London, with a dog, cat, partner (who uses eBay) — and both have profound concerns about their children’s exposure to cannabis.

Both ruefully recall outfitting now-befuddled sons at Peter Jones when they were innocent youngsters.

Anonymous’s eldest, Eddie, spends his clothes allowance on “going out” (his parents’ suspicion is that means on drugs) and her husband insists that Eddie must face the consequences of his hole-filled jeans: “Being bloody cold. Shivering at the bus stop.” Myerson too describes leaving her son Jake in ripped jeans at the bus stop, alone on a dark, wet night.

Both authors tried to keep in touch with their sons by providing them with phones, but found the bills prohibitive. Anonymous talked Eddie into getting a pay-as-you go, and Myerson tried the same, but her son said he couldn’t afford it.

Both Anonymous and Myerson describe a similar evening in which their sons Jake (Myerson) and Jack (Anonymous) return home in a state. “Are you drunk?” both authors ask their sons. Both sons are asked if they have taken drugs. Both sons deny this, and then both are sick (Jake vomits “green water”, while Jack spews “liquid — thankfully clear”). Next morning both boys are fine and both mothers express concern about their school work. Myerson’s son says “I’ll do what I see fit”, while Anonymous's “tells me to stop interfering in his life”.

Apart from cannabis, both elder sons smoke tobacco. Anonymous’s Eddie “is sitting on the lawn, smoking a roll-up, drinking coffee”. Anonymous describes her youngest, Jack, “towering four inches above me”, while Myerson’s Jake — in The Times in 2005 — is “almost 17 and towering above me”. Myerson once wrote an article set on the number 12 bus. Anonymous wrote a column set on the number 11.

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