Laurie Colwin – författare

'Breathtaking, moving and very funny' Brandon TaylorOlly is twenty-one when she first meets Sam Bax. Fearless, goofy and risk-taking, he arrives in her life on the back of a huge motorcycle. By the end of the day, the pair are kissing in an apple orchard. A year later, they are married. Five years after that, Sam has sailed into a storm and Olly is a widow at twenty-seven, left to grieve her impetuous, irresistible husband and deal with a world that treats her like a piece of antique glass. But as time passes, she realises that her risks are as daring as any of Sam's: while he chanced life and limb, Olly risks her heart - and finds that love can take some surprising turns. With humour, compassion and a decided lack of sentimentality, this is the wise and witty story of a woman trying to find her future, from the beloved Laurie Colwin.A W&N Essential with an introduction from Brandon Taylor

'Everything food writing should be: funny, profound, inspiring and unaffected' Nigella LawsonWeaving together memories, recipes, and wild tales of years spent in the kitchen, Home Cooking is Laurie Colwin's manifesto on the joys of sharing food and entertaining. From the humble hot-plate of her one-room apartment to the crowded kitchens of bustling parties, Colwin regales us with tales of meals gone both magnificently well and disastrously wrong.Never before published in the UK, this is hilarious, personal and full of Colwin's hard-won expertise. Home Cooking will speak to the heart (and stomach) of any amateur cook, professional chef, or food lover.'A feast . . . witty, no-nonsense. Home Cooking is a culinary companion as comfortable beside your bed as your cooker. It has an essay for everyone who loves to eat and demonstrates that home is where the heart is - and the stomach happiest' Observer'Laurie Colwin's food thoughts are like phone calls from a dear friend' New Yorker'Shrewd, witty and consistently enjoyable' Mail on Sunday

'A love story for anyone who tends to overthink things' Maile MeloyIn her late thirties, book designer Jane Louise Parker has started to worry she will never find someone to marry. Until she meets Teddy, whose native decency leaves her almost breathless at her good fortune. After their wedding, Jane Louise returns to work at a small publishing house, but struggles to think of herself as older, wiser, more grown-up. Soon though she, along with her best friend Edie, will find out whether motherhood might just be the ultimate dividing line between youth and something else. Laurie Colwin's final novel joyfully explores friendship, love, marriage, motherhood and families created in their own particular way.A W&N Essential

'Colwin is a bard of burgeoning adulthood' New YorkerPolly has been the house pet to several families: friendly, cheerful, good with children, happy to bask in the domesticity of other people's lives - until she meets Gilbert. Cordy, raised with the spartan, pleasure-rejecting habits of the very rich, cannot stomach the pleasures of his beloved Jane's cooking, her lavender soap, her adoration. And Ann, the perpetually stoned young wife of a popular college professor, tries to find the courage to tell her husband that she's been high since the day they met. Humorous, tender and moving, here are tales of love and desire in all its forms, with each story told in Laurie Colwin's irresistible, inimitable style.A W&N Essential

'Colwin wrings magic from ordinary lives' Entertainment WeeklyCarl thinks that his wife Lucy tells him everything, until he discovers her secret daily habit. She has arranged a part of her life away from him and gone swimming in it. Patricia plays the same honky-tonk album over and over, while worrying that she'll never become any less young and heedless, any more willing to get down to what her husband calls "the things of life". Elizabeth has an orderly existence up to the day she meets Richard: a slightly wrecked married man on the fringes of middle age who holds her hand as if it is an eggshell. This sparkling story collection from the adored Laurie Colwin explores love, longing and all we can never know about each other.A W&N Essential

'Seriously wise, seriously wonderful, seriously comic - your life will be richer for it' Katherine HeinyGuido and Vicent - third cousins and best friends - spend their time lolling around and wondering who they will marry.Then, one wet Sunday afternoon in a museum, Gudio meets Holly. Precise about everything, Holly knows what she likes: pressed sheets, tea on a tray - and now, Guido.Soon after, Vincent falls for his misanthropic new colleague, Misty. She seems completely uninterested in love, until she agrees to go to dinner with Vincent.This exquisitely well-written and much-beloved novel follows the two couples through courtship, arguments, wedding plans and other perils, as they find a way to be happy (almost) all the time.A W&N Essential with an introduction from Katherine Heiny

'If you've ever been in a relationship with another person, if you've ever had a family, you need to read this book' Ann PatchettPolly Solo-Miller Demarest is the perfect flower of the Solo-Miller family.The Solo-Millers have everything: looks, brains, money, a strong, fortified sense of clan, and branches in Boston, Philadelphia, and New York, as well as London, just like a banking house.And Polly, along with Henry Demarest, a big handsome lawyer, has a beautiful household of her own and two nice, sturdy children.But one day - completely unexpectedly - she finds herself entangled in a sweet yet painful love affair with a painter, who loves her in the specific and allows her to cry freely in front of him. Suddenly all the values she has lived by are called into question.From Laurie Colwin, the ultimate chronicler of the human heart, comes a novel about a woman tired of being taken for granted - and a reminder that family, like happiness, can take many forms.A W&N Essential with an introduction by Lisa Owens

'Warm, wise, witty, and just plain fun' Maggie ShipsteadAt a perfectly ordinary cocktail party, Francis is introduced to Billy and - although it slips right by him at the time - he falls in love with her at once.Billy is a serious, often glum person. An economic historian, she is indifferent to a great many things (clothes, food, home décor), frowns easily and is frequently irritated. Francis is older. He likes routine and a well-run household; he likes to pay for dinner, open car doors and call Billy at night to make sure she is safe. Both are happily married - but not to each other. So begins a whirlwind love affair, perfectly captured in this frank, funny irresistible novel, from its fabulous inception to its inevitable end.A W&N Essential with an introduction by Caroline O'Donoghue