Nightingale Wood (55 page)

It must be odd to be as happy as that, thinks Hetty, following them down the church between the ranks of smiling, moved, wistful faces. I’d sooner have my life than hers. I wonder if he’s drunk yet?

The verger has swung back the doors of the church, and out into the sunshine and the laughing cheering crowd, the showers of confetti and silver horseshoes, goes Viola on Victor’s arm. All the birds of summer seem calling to welcome her, as though the landscape itself were singing (they love a land like Essex, flat and wooded and watery) yet it is not so much a singing as a busy chirruping, a subdued recalling of springtime among the trees whence the white stars of the pear, the dark pink crab-apple flowers and the cherry-blossom have long since fallen. All the birds of summer seem to be calling; but the courting season is over, and one voice is silent.

GOOD BEHAVIOUR

Molly Keane

‘A remarkable novel, beautifully written, brilliant …
every page a pleasure to read’

P. D. James

Behind its rich veneer, the estate of Temple Alice is a crumbling fortress, from which the aristocratic St Charles family keeps the realities of life at bay. Aroon, the unlovely daughter of the house, silently longs for love and approval, which she certainly doesn’t receive from her elegant, icy mother. And though her handsome father is fond of her, his passion is for the thrill of the chase – highbred ladies and servants are equally fair game. Sinking into a decaying grace, the family’s adherence to the unyielding codes of ‘good behaviour’ is both their salvation and their downfall. For their reserved façades conceal dark secrets and hushed cruelties …

‘A masterpiece … Molly Keane is a
mistress of wicked comedy’
Malcolm Bradbury,
Vogue

‘Wickedly alive’

Victoria Glendinning,
Sunday Times

‘Dark, complex, engaging … a
wonderful tour de force’

Marian Keyes

JANE AND PRUDENCE

Barbara Pym

‘Barbara Pym is the rarest of treasures; she reminds us
of the heartbreaking silliness of everyday life’
Anne Tyler

If Jane Cleveland and Prudence Bates seem an unlikely pair to be walking together at an Oxford reunion, neither of them is aware of it. The couldn’t be more different: Jane is a rather incompetent vicar’s wife, who always looks as if she is about to feed the chickens, while Prudence, a pristine hothouse flower, has the most unsuitable affairs. With the move to a rural parish, Jane is determined to find her friend the perfect man. She learns, though, that matchmaking has as many pitfalls as housewifery …

‘Over the years, as Barbara Pym replaced Nancy Mitford, Georgette Heyer, even Jane Austen, as my most loved author, I devoured all her books, but
Jane and Prudence
remains my favourite. Even an umpteenth reading this weekend was punctuated by gasps of joy, laughter, sympathy and wonder that this lovely book should remain so fresh, funny and true to life’

Jilly Cooper