'Genteel mostly, respectable all, the world here is London SW, south of the river. With a fruitful marriage (and a quick, astonishing adulterous bounce) behind her, comfortable, amiable Mrs Aidallbery - Elizabeth - is in hospital for a hysterectomy.

'So is Sylvie Clapper, with false teeth and bleached hair, young witless, cheery. She lives with a slippery Irishman: no children yet and now no chance. Likewise confined, devout Miss Samson with the raw blackberry birthmark worries about her boarding-house, for believers only, and the discovery that her Christian mentor died in disbelief. And Lily Drucker, after repeated abortions, is in for childbirth, while her clawed mother-in-law tries to bait back her son with sausage rolls and Lincoln Creams... And there is William Trevor, taking relays from flies on a hundred walls, snipping, linking, shaping his material with delicate understanding, respect and a sparing trickle - just enough - of humour... A finely observed, gently sensitive comedy, delightful to read, like lived experience to remember' - "Daily Telegraph"