POPULAR FICTION

Cass Wheeler is a seventies folkrock singer, all long hair and floaty dresses. We meet her as she listens to her back catalogue in preparation for a greatest hits album. her career stretches from sweaty pub gigs to albums that define generations.

Cass’s central relationship is with the mercurial Ivor, but those with her troubled daughter, offbeat aunt, sculptor boyfriend and various hangerson are crucial, too.

Barnett’s style is poetic, perceptive and so fully realised it reads like an exceptionally well-written biography of a real person, with songs (which the author has actually recorded!) slipped in for a dab of extra verisimilitude.

a fascinating, occasionally sobering, portrait of fame. LILLIAN BOXFISH TAKES A WALK by Kathleen Rooney (Daunt Books £9.99) anoTher retrospective book, and this time based on a real person: Margaret Fishback, copywriter for Macy’s, who was, in the Thirties, the highest paid woman in advertising.

rooney takes Margaret’s story and uses it as the basis for this funny, nostalgic novel.

Gutsy, wisecracking old lillian walks through her beloved Big apple on new Year’s eve, 1984. We re-live her youth as a glam advertising exec; her marriage to slick Italian Max; her motherhood and breakdown cured by electroshock therapy.

This final walk — clad in headto-toe mink — is full of latenight shopkeepers, friendly gangsters, restaurateurs who have seen better days and transgender parties.

It’s a love letter to a stylish and atmospheric city — walkups and automats, cocktails and hat-brims — and a sharp, wise, entertaining read. LOOKING FOR EVELYN by Maggie Ritchie (Saraband £8.99) sCoTs author Maggie ritchie’s Paris Kiss was a triumph of a debut novel and the former journalist this time turns to her own childhood in Zambia for inspiration.

ritchie relates the story of Chrissie Docherty, a journalist searching for answers about distressing memories from her childhood. This leads her to return to Zambia, where she meets evelyn, who holds the key to unlocking her demons.

The gentle pace of the novel is enhanced by the descriptions of the beauty of southern africa, while ritchie thoroughly yet succinctly covers the racial and political tensions of the time.

If you’re looking for a holiday book to transport you to southern africa, this is it.