No Place For a Man (31 page)

Judy Astley

A Proper Family Holiday was the last thing Lucy was expecting to have. But as a penniless and partnerless house-painter with an expired lease on her flat and a twelve-year-old daughter, she could hardly turn down her parents’ offer to take them on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Caribbean. She’d just have to put up with her sister Theresa (making no secret of preferring Tuscany as a holiday destination) and brother Simon (worrying that there might be some sinister agenda behind their parents’ wish to take them all away) with their various spouses, teenagers, young children and au pair.

In a luxury hotel, with bright sunshine, swimming, diving, glorious food and friendly locals, any family tensions should have melted away in the fabulous heat. The children should have been angelic, the teenagers cheerful, the adults relaxed and happy. But … some problems just refuse to be left at home.

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Judy Astley

Funerals are strange things. Kitty hadn’t really wanted to go to this one – an old school friend she hadn’t seen for years – and she hadn’t bargained for the way it made her think of the past. In particular, it made her think of the baby she had given birth to when she was eighteen, the baby her parents had insisted she give away for adoption. She’d called her Madeleine, and she remembered her every day, what she was like, if she was happy. But now, reminded of how cruelly short life can be, she had to see her – just to make sure she’d done the right thing.

Life had turned out pretty well for Kitty. Secure in her marriage, with her two teenage children and a house within sound and sight of the Cornish surf, she counted herself among the lucky ones. But the hole left by that first baby wasn’t getting any smaller, and she decided to make the first, tentative steps towards filling it – although she, and all her family, were quite unprepared for the upheaval which followed.

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Judy Astley

‘OH, WHAT A FIND! A LOVELY, FUNNY BOOK’
Sarah Harrison

Every July, the lucky owners of Cornish holiday homes set off for their annual break. Loading their estate cars with dogs, cats, casefuls of wine, difficult adolescents and rebellious toddlers, they close up their desirable semis in smartish London suburbs – having turned off the Aga and turned on the burglar alarm – and look forward to a carefree, restful, somehow more
fulfilling
summer.

Clare is, this year, more than usually ready for her holiday. Her teenage daughter, Miranda, has been behaving strangely; her husband, Jack, is harbouring unsettling thoughts of a change in lifestyle; her small children are being particularly tiresome; and she herself is contemplating a bit of extra-marital adventure, possibly with Eliot, the successful – although undeniably heavy-drinking and overweight – author in the adjoining holiday property. Meanwhile Andrew, the only son of elderly parents, is determined that this will be the summer when he will seduce Jessica, Eliot’s nubile daughter. But Jessica spends her time in girl-talk with Miranda, while Milo, her handsome brother with whom Andrew longs to be friends, seems more interested in going sailing with the young blond son of the club commodore.

Unexpected disasters occur, revelations are made and, as the summer ends, real life will never be quite the same again.

‘A SHARP SOCIAL COMEDY … SAILS ALONG VERY NICELY AND FULFILS ITS EARLY PROMISE’ John Mortimer,
Mail on Sunday

‘WICKEDLY FUNNY … A THOROUGHLY ENTERTAINING ROMP’ Val Hennessy,
Daily Mail

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