POPULAR FICTION WENDY HOLDEN

MR GANDY’S GRAND TOUR by Alan Titchmarsh (Hodder & Stoughton £18.99)

TIMOTHY GANDY, timid fiftysomething widower, sets out on a modern version of the Georgian Grand Tour.

it’s a clever premise, which gives the plot inbuilt momentum as our hero moves from place to place meeting contemporary Grand Tour-ish people.

These include a sexy French art dealer for whom Tim falls hard, a luxury yacht salesman and a Barbara Cartland- esque novelist living on Cap Ferrat.

while i sometimes found it difficult to suspend my disbelief (no queues at Notre dame and Versailles!), our hero is amiable and sympathetic, and grand hotels, posh villas and swanky yachts are described in sumptuous detail. A pleasurable read which fans will lap up.

THE PRODIGAL DAUGHTER by Prue Leith (Quercus £19.99)

THIS second in the Food of Love trilogy follows charismatic chefs the Angelottis through the Sixties and Seventies. The family’s italian restaurant chain is now flourishing in London; daughter Angelica wants to cook French, however, and goes to the Cordon Bleu school in Paris.

here she embarks on a disastrous affair with her rakish cousin, but this doesn’t stop her blazing a trail as a woman chef through grand, if bullying, hotel kitchens.

Leith has really hit her stride as a writer here and uses her own considerable catering experience, describing loads of luscious nosh and skilfully interweaving emotional drama with food fashions and restaurant trends. i can’t wait until she gets to the eighties in the next book; ice sculptures here we come.

LEAVE ME by Gayle Forman (Simon & Schuster £16.99)

YOUNG-ADULT star novelist Forman’s first foray into adult fiction is a triumph. New york glossy-mag journalist Maribeth is stressed out with work, children and a husband not pulling his weight (all difficult to imagine, i know).

This brings on a shock heart attack followed by an even more shock decision: to leave her family and run away.

Anonymous in Pittsburgh, Maribeth slowly regroups with the help of some colourful neighbours, a silver fox cardiologist and an ancestor-tracing website. But can she ever return, and will her children forgive her?

For all that the subject is emotional and dark, this ultimate forbidden maternal fantasy is written with a light, refreshingly satirical touch.