For the birds

AMELIA arrives home from her half-day at work. She has the week’s shopping and quickly squirrels everything away, leaving just her children’s magazines on the kitchen table. Seeing she only has three-

WHEN Lady Hargreaves told Valerie that she was the third governess to be engaged for Rosa in a little over a year, it had taken Valerie only a few days to realise that the problem was not Rosa herself

NATALIE had done it again: spoken without thinking. Honestly, she sometimes thought she consisted of two people. There was the sensible Natalie who recycled her cardboard, and an inner, loose-lipped N

It’s a brave playwright who would make the young George Eliot his main character; invidious comparisons are bound to lurk in the wings. Alexi Kaye Campbell’s Bird Grove aims to dramatize Mary Ann Evan

IT was a clear early spring day, the breeze light and the sands empty. Sea and land seemed to go on forever, their divisions blurred by light and distance. Brigitte Wetherby breathed in the salty air

This is the month of horticultural happiness, and with everything looking fresh, green and lush, even the burgeoning weeds become – briefly – delightful additions to the garden. Selfheal sprouts gaily