Rose Macaulay

A young writer with a sizeable family returns to college as a way to spend her free time, but finds that she is perhaps not as sharp as she once was. Sick of her chaotic family, she decides to settle down, but realises that her boyfriend was no longer wiling to wait and has fallen for someone else... her own niece, no less. Struggling with all the commitments that come with a large family, she endeavours to put her life back together again.

Though from very different backgrounds, Daphne and Daisy move as one – living in the same apartment, pursuing writing careers and attracted to the same man. Rose Macaulay brings her customary satirical wit to a novel about identity and deceit, drawing on sharp observations of the print press’s attitude to women, and prefiguring the age of social media with our fixation on how we appear to others.

When Aunt Dot, niece Laurie and Father Chantry-Pigg travel to Turkey it is ostensibly to investigate the establishment of a High Anglican mission, but each member of the group has an ulterior motive for making the trip.