Simon Thomas

When her bohemian life in Paris falls flat at the beginning of the First World War, Sally Lunton returns to the care of her guardian in Little Crampton to find a husband. With some encouragement from the local busybody, she makes a play for Mr Bingley, the bank manager, although she has a rival in Mrs Dalton, a widow with a young daughter to raise. These two ladies form a quiet alliance, recognising that the prize isn't really worth fighting over but respecting the other's pursuit of financial security. Sally aims to win but is distracted by her unsettling emotions for a soldier tortured by his experience at the Front. This entertaining novel is full of acute and humorous observations of male and female attitudes to love and marriage. Sally is a spirited heroine, who is determined to settle into a comfortable life now that she is in her early thirties. But in securing her future, Sally must also face her past.

"I know that things of that kind always are known, and the people I've been thrown with, sooner or later, always turned out to have heard the story. Or if they hadn't," said Miss Marchrose in a voice of calm despair, "someone took the trouble to tell them." Miss Marchrose is about to discover that she cannot escape her past when she takes up a new position at a secretarial college in the south west of England. Following insinuations dropped by the director's wife, she becomes the subject of a whispering campaign which threatens her professional career and personal happiness. Tension examines reputation and the persistence of gossip in relation to a woman's choice of work and domestic arrangements with a light touch of humour. The two main female characters represent the different roles of women in public life: Lady Rossiter uses her social position to influence college matters, while Miss Marchrose is a professional woman who brings qualifications and experience to her role.

'Joanna sat with her cheek against her [Libby's] shining hair. She had hardly thought of Steven since he slammed his way out of the house, but now, welling up within her and pouring out over her love for Libby, came an intolerable flood of envy.' Widowed at 21 with a young baby, Joanna Malling finds her solitary existence upended twenty years later when her daughter Libby moves in with her new husband. At 35, Steven is closer in age to Joanna than Libby. What begins as an awkward relationship between mother and son-in-law evolves into something more intimate and Joanna must wrestle with re-awakened emotions and the conflict between desire and loyalty.

A female narrator looks back on her childhood in a coming-of-age novel set before the First World War. Ruan is an intelligent and imaginative child, who gradually comes to understand the nuances of the adult world around her, as she moves from the Manse, under the strict rule of her father, a non-conformist minister, to Cobbetts, her mother's ancestral home, under the tutelage of her Uncle Alaric, and back to the guardianship of Rosie Day at Bolton House high up on the moor above the town where she was born. Her young life is shaped by a series of tragedies, but also the warmth of enduring friendships, particularly with David, her dearest friend who shares her love of the wild expanse and colours of the moor.

David Tompkins thinks it is a splendid idea to open a tea garden at his Kentish cottage. His wife, Germayne, is not so sure. The local villagers are divided on the matter, and not necessarily supportive, particularly Mr Perch at the Dolphin, who sees it as direct competition to Mrs Perch's own tea garden. It doesn't bode well when the official opening coincides with a break in the beautiful weather. Things are further complicated by the arrival of the 'cake cook' Mimi, a Viennese girl with a mysterious past, Germayne's daughter Ducks, and finally her 'rather stolid' ex-husband Digby. With rumour rife that the couple are - whisper it - not actually married, the lady of the manor, who has failed to realise that nowadays that title carries no real weight, makes it her mission to shut the enterprise down.

Mainly covering the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s, this collection of images offers a fascinating survey of one of the iconic locomotives of twentieth-century Britain: the Class 40. A common sight in Scotland and the north of England in the latter part of the century, the Class 40 continues to capture the imagination of railway enthusiasts everywhere. Used to haul both heavy freight and passenger trains, this book captures a locomotive at the peak of its powers, with previously unpublished images showing Class 40s both at work and rest. The vast majority of the photographs in this book were taken by the late Keith Holt. He was brought up in West Yorkshire and, like many youngsters at that time, developed an interest in railways as he cycled around the West Riding to visit places of interest. He always took photographs, including many of the iconic Class 40 locomotives. This book serves as a fitting tribute to his longstanding interest in the railways, and reflects the varied work carried out by the Class 40.

Rose Macaulay takes a lively and perceptive look at three generations of women within the same family and the 'dangers' faced at each of those stages in life. The book opens with Neville celebrating her 43rd birthday and contemplating middle age now that her children are grown. Her mother, in her sixties, seeks answers to her melancholy in Freudianism. Her sister, Nan, 33, a writer who has hitherto led a single and carefree life in London, experiences the loss of love and with it her plan for the future. And Neville's principled daughter Gerda, who is determined not to follow her mother's generation into the institute of marriage, finds herself at an impasse with the man she loves.