Pam Valentine – författare

A committee meets on a winter's night to arrange the summer village fete. As protocol gives way to bickering and gossip, the personalities of those present emerge: busybody Ethel; Pauline, the vicar's long-suffering wife; careworn Gloria; horsy Majorie who is very attentive to the shy new teacher, Angela; elderly Mavis and Sally, the brisk Army wife. Six months on, the cathartic events of the fete are related with humour and pathos, and the upbeat ending affirms the enduring value of village life.7 women, 1 man

Recently widowed, Anna is visited by her three middle-aged children who have decided that the family house must be sold and Anna move either to a residential home or sheltered housing. In fact, anywhere so long as it's not with any of them. However, their veneer of filial concern doesn't fool Anna who has other ideas. Far from suffering from the dementia her children imagine she is starting, Anna has organized her own future in Florida that doesn't include any of her selfish offspring, although it does encompass the new man in her life.