With the nights drawing in and an autumn chill in the air, I escaped to a remote Lake District farmhouse with a stash of new books to read. There are some great new reads out this month – including novels from two of my favourite authors, Elizabeth Buchan and Rosie Thomas. Elizabeth Buchan should be far better known than she is. Once a blurb writer for Penguin, she’s written ten novels, including the brilliantly-titled and best-selling Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman. Her latest, Separate Beds, is the tale of married couple Annie and Tom. On the surface they have everything – three grown-up children, successful careers and a stylish house. But as always, appearances are deceptive. In reality their daughter Mia has walked out after a blazing row with her dad, Annie and Tom sleep apart and when Tom is made redundant, it looks as though their relationship could hit the skids too.
Beautifully-written, perceptive and compassionate, this is a hugely satisfying read. My only reservation is the title. I read some of it in an Ambleside cafe and got some raised eyebrows from people sitting nearby. Apart from that, I loved it.
Meanwhile Rosie Thomas is another great storyteller. Whether she’s writing about tricky teenagers or grumpy grandparents, she creates stories that resonate with her readers’ lives. I read Follies, her book about three Oxford students, soon after it was published 27 years ago and have been hooked on her novels ever since.
In Lovers & Newcomers she looks at the trials and tribulations of turning 60. A diverse set of friends – two couples, a glamorous widow and a gay man – who have known each other since they were wild students in the Sixties recklessly decide to move in together.
Desperate to stave off the unedifying prospect of old age, newly-widowed Miranda invites her friends to live in her rambling Norfolk mansion. Penniless bohemians Selwyn and Polly work all hours to renovate a tumbledown barn, well-to-do lawyer Amos and his wife Katherine draw up plans for a swanky house next door and gay set designer Colin darts between London, New York and the country.
The six throw themselves wholeheartedly into building new lives. The word “old” is banned (anyone who utters it has to pay a fine) and they laugh, dance, drink too much and generally behave badly – just like the good old days.
As always, Thomas weaves her characters’ stories together with such skill and warmth that you really care about them. She’s equally adept at conveying the hopes and fears of the younger generation too. At 25, Polly’s twin daughters look glossy and sophisticated – but they admit to feeling lost and abandoned when their parents sell the family home and move to the country.
The publication of Buchan and Thomas’s books isn’t the only good news either. Jilly Cooper’s new novel, Jump!, is out in two weeks’ time. I can’t wait!
Separate Beds by Elizabeth Buchan is published by Penguin, price £6.99
Lovers & Newcomers by Rosie Thomas is published by Harper, price £7.99
