Lou stirred her hot chocolate. Her half-hearted diet wasn’t going well, or rather, had never truly started. It felt impossible in this chilly weather to contemplate salads and bottled water instead of

SIPPING coffee with Paula in their favourite café, Liz correctly guessed her friend’s first question. “Well, how did your mother-in-law’s visit go?” Liz smiled. “Very well. Justine is lovely, funny an

YOU can’t just throw it all in a skip, Mum!” Bryony’s voice was muffled by a dust mask as she crouched in the loft space, carefully avoiding bumping her head on the beams. She examined a battered trun

A VISIT to the local coffee shop following their Pilates class had become a welcome routine for the three retired friends. One morning Lyn ordered her favourite flat white, insisting she wanted nothin

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

Apart from the For Sale board, the house didn’t look any different from the last time I was here. Six months ago now. The day of my father’s funeral. A memory of how fragile my mother appeared that da