POPULAR FICTION
HOMECOMINGS by Marcia Willett (Bantam £18.99)
DAshinG pilot Jamie’s career has hit the buffers. he’s returned home to the West country just as freelance cook Dossie comes to terms with her parents’ death. They fall instantly in love, to the dismay of Jamie’s cousin hugo, who had his eye on Dossie himself.
Willett’s specialist subject is family complications past and present, all served up, cream-tea-like, with lashings of lush cornish setting. her writing combines a painter’s eye for detail with warm compassion for her characters.
While not a book for those who like hot action, this absorbing tale is as satisfying as one of Dossie’s slow-cooked stews.
IT TAKES ONE TO KNOW ONE by Isla Dewar (Polygon £9.99)
persons Martha, formerly Bureau, i offbeat edinburgh. investigator who coMpLeTeLy runs and of book, the pioneering his Be set charlie it spiky kindly in adored stars seventies girl sidekick Missing Gavin, band this shy he Vinnie Both was And abandoned charlie The and Vixens. as Martha a baby have by his suffered; mother, while her husband. she was in abandoned the course with of a a complex baby by investigation, they grow to know and depend on each other; will it end in love?
charlie’s got a heart the size of the planet: some of the missing people don’t want to be found, so he takes them to live with him and they prove to have unlikely talents.
it’s a wonderful, funny novel full of insight in which kindness and love take centre stage — but with absolutely none of the mushiness that implies, thank goodness.
GEORGE & LIZZIE by Nancy Pearl (Touchstone £16.99)
This takes family brilliantly George two types bittersweet comes as well-known the and from title unites couple. a comedy nurturing, Jewish them while overfeeding, Lizzie’s parents child- are oriented straight family, out of Woody Allen: arid, anti-social academics.
Despite — irony alert! — being psychologists, they barely notice she exists and it’s to attract their attention that she decides to sleep with the entire high school football team. Lydia and Mendel (the parents) don’t react directly, but write about it in a psychology magazine. Jack, the love of Lizzie’s life, reads it and dumps her.
Luckily, the adorable George comes along to pick up the shattered pieces. But has Lizzie ever got over Jack?
set in the recent past, this incredibly funny, thoughtful and clever novel is great on growing up — and family, most of all.