Janet Davey – författare

On a weekend in late summer, Jo is fleeing to London with her children when, a few miles into the journey from the Kent coast, her teenage daughter jumps off the train. Since Jo’s husband left her, she has been caring single-handedly for her three children, working in a junk shop to make ends meet. A new love affair was just beginning to give her life meaning until the man inexplicably lashed out at her. Jo’s instinct was to pack hasty bags and head to her family in London. As we follow Jo's attempt to cope with the repercussions of her daughter's action we gradually learn what led up to the attack from her lover, and begin to understand how desperately each of them would like to escape the ties that bind and begin afresh.

Two men meet by chance in the taxi queue outside Paddington station one January night. Richard is in his mid-forties, apparently happily married, with two children. Abe is young, and casually manipulative. The men share a taxi and, on impulse, Richard invites Abe into his home- an action that sends ripples not only through his own life and that of his wife, but also through the fragile existence of Abe's younger sister, Kirsty, who is herself unsure of the best way to settle down...

‘We’re lucky to have such an intelligent chronicler of our present' Tessa Hadley on Janet DaveyLorna Parry lives with her three sons, each one lurching into adulthood. Lorna struggles in the claustrophobic loneliness of her home; she’s still angry at her ex-husband, uncomfortable around her father’s new girlfriend and finds it difficult to talk to her sons. Life seems precariously balanced. Then a shocking event occurs at the boys’ school and her world threatens to implode.