Book excerpt: The Warrior Queen is a subversive, funny novel about modern middle-class marriage. Kate Wildburn is in trouble. She is an extrovert, a lateral thinker and a talented pianist. She is also a good wife and mother, and an attractive woman who enjoys being a woman. Richard, her surgeon husband, is balding, aggressive, hard on his children – and is he having an affair? The Warrior Queen is a subversive look at modern middle-class marriage, a guerrilla war of the sexes fought in well-heeled Auckland among the trendy homes and chic cafes of Remmers and Parnell. With her fine ear for male bluster and female bitchiness, and her subtle observations of family life, Barbara Else has created an elegant black comedy to entertain – and warn – readers from either of the warring camps.