Good Daughters

What's so special about a son? Why doesn't she care about her daughters?'  Mary Hocking brings good humour and sympathy to her depiction of the Fairley sisters growing up in their close-knit West London neighbourhood before, during and after the war. Here, in the first novel of a trilogy, the girls are sheltered in a world whose traditions of hard work and frugality are upheld by their Methodist father, Stanley, and their strong quiet mother, Judith. But, as love comes to Louise and adventures tempt Alice and her friend, unease lurks and terrible rumours travel from Germany - auguries of the catastrophe to come.

Literature & Fiction

Hocking, Mary

Contemporary

Pelham

<p>Shelf wear to price clipped dust jacket, page edges tanned. Shipped from the U.K. All orders received before 3pm sent that weekday.</p>

Indifferent heroes

Chatto&Windus

<p>Set in a small West Country town, this new novel by the author of the trilogy "Good Daughters", "Indifferent Heroes" and "Welcome Strangers", concerns the family and social difficulties encountered by a newly-arrived vicar to the parish church of St Hilary.</p>

A Particular Place

British & Irish

THE MEETING PLACE

RANDOM HOUSE UK

Good Daughters (U)

Ulverscroft

Indifferent Heroes (U)

The parishioners of a small West Country market town are uncertain what to make of their new Anglican vicar with his candlelit processions. And, though Michael Hoath embraces challenge, his enthusiasm is sapped by their dogged traditionalism. Moreover, Valentine's imperial temperament is more suited to the amateur dramatics she excels at than the role of vicar's wife. Their separate claims to insecurity are, for the most part, concealed and so both are surprised when Michael falls in love with a member of his congregation: a married woman, neither young nor beautiful. In tracing the effects of this unlikely attraction, Mary Hocking offers humour, sympathy and an overwhelming sense of the poignancy of human expectations.

Literary

Bello

In 1939, as they leave school, Constance and Sheila vow to keep in touch. Posted to Ireland in the WRNS, Constance marries Fergus, a gregarious Irishman. Before long, stifled by domesticity and motherhood, she envies Sheila, writing poetry and married to the fiercely creative Miles. Gradually, however, a different reality emerges, for Constance has unacknowledged talents of her own, while Sheila's public success is bought at great personal cost. From the war to the 1980s, Constance writes to Sheila of her everyday hopes and sorrows, and through her we learn much of Sheila's gallantry and courage. We learn, too, of the social and political developments that challenge and shape her values, until finally outside events come too close and the fragile balance of Constance's own world is threatened.  This is an unforgettable portrait of a friendship, and much more. While Letters from Constance explores personal experiences with humour, tenderness and acuity, it is an equally fascinating microcosm of the years it surveys.

Letters from Constance

Genre Fiction

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