Böcker av Judy Astley

Kitty hadn't really wanted to go to this one - a old school friend she hadn't seen for years - and she hadn't bargained for the way it made her think of the past.

But then Alex came along...the safer, more restful option, and thanks to her over-controlling mother she opted for him instead. Alex has left her to live in New York with a younger, blonder woman. It's crisis time - and she makes two decisions: First - she will take lessons in self-defence.Second - she will try and find Patrick again.

It is almost a year since Sean and Thea met and it's been a roller-coaster ride: they're getting married on Christmas Day! Neither Thea or Sean want a big fuss - a simple wedding, with Christmas lights and just a few sprigs of mistletoe for decoration is all they need. But before they know it, things begin to get complicated.

Thea's parents decide to host a big family Christmas in a house by the sea... even though they are, in fact, about to split up. Thea herself is newly single - her sister and brother are both settled, with children, homes and a future.

Every July, the lucky owners of Cornish holiday homes set off for their annual break. They close up their desirable semis in smartish London suburbs - having turned off the Aga and turned on the burglar alarm - and look forward to a carefree, restful, somehow more fulfilling summer. Clare is more than usually ready for her holiday.

Now she's back again - with her mother Clare and the ashes of her stepfather Jack, whose wish was to be scattered on the sea overlooked by their one-time holiday home. The picturesque cove seems just the same as ever, but the people are different - more smart incomers,fewer locals, more luxury yachts in the harbour.

Viola hasn't had much luck with men. Her first husband, Marco, companion of her youth and father of her only child, left her when he realised he was gay. Her second, Rhys, ended his high-octane, fame-filled life by driving his Porsche into a wall.

Her latest boyfriend 'forgot' to tell her about his current wife, so she's single again. Now, her ex-husband has turned up, wanting to sell the family home in which she and their two teenage children are happily living their lives. Then Bella sees a chance to stay in the house and earn some money.

Melanie finds herself single again after years of being one half of a couple. Her friends predict loneliness, frustration, disaster. Her parents are convinced she's a failure in life. But Melanie is overwhelmingly excited to be able to do her own thing n she plans a programme of behaving badly, after a lifetime of behaving properly.

Sara's mother told her that she shouldn't marry Conrad - that the twenty-five-year age gap between them would tell in the end. Sara, teaching art at a local college, finds that she has plenty of male company - other people's husbands, ones she tells Conrad all about, who are just good friends to her.

She sooo wants a home to come home to. Ilex, her brother, is trying to upgrade his flat and marry his smart girlfriend Manda. He'd like some immediate equity. Clover, the elder sister, has plans that involve a bijou second home in France.

To make matters worse, Beth has insisted on bringing along their sixteen-year-old daughter Delilah, who's been ill and needs some rest and sunshine. Not so ill, however, that she can't look around for some entertainment.

She's left with two teenage daughters and husband Matt - all of whom find themselves regularly featured in her popular and lighthearted newspaper column in which she conveys to her readers an enviably cheery muddle of family life. Things become less rosy when Matt, after twenty years with the same firm, is made redundant.

After twenty years of marriage, Nina had offloaded serial philanderer Joe and was happy enough, thank you, coping alone with their two demanding daughters and her own hectic life. But babies, Joe told Nina, were what he did with her: a remark that Nina found oddly unsettling...

Now Jay lives happily with her architect husband and their three teenage children, running a successful cleaning company and trying to keep some kind of order on her disorderly household, while Delphine has long since disappeared to Australia with her second husband.

A social comedy by the author of "Just for the Summer". The illegal activities of unemployed teenagers on a London suburban council estate are giving cause for concern. There is also illegal activity among the residents of the desirable street nearby - but these crimes are more socially-acceptable.