Melissa Jane Nathan (13 June 1968 – 7 April 2006) was a journalist for about 12 years and then started writing comedy novels in 1998. She was a popular UK author of "chick lit" novels in the early 2000s. She was born and raised in Hertfordshire, and educated at Haberdashers' Aske's School for Girls, Elstree. That was what you call laughing in adversity. It's what makes people smile mistily at me, as if I'm fading in front of their very eyes while telling knock-knock jokes. What they don't know is that I have daydreams about being the oldest person at their funeral.