Celia Dale

Middle-aged Josh and Maisie Evans lead an unremarkable, unassuming life. When Auntie Flo, who has lived with them for years, dies and leaves them her estate, they head to Italy on holiday to take in the sea air and let the sun soak into their bones. It's there they meet Mrs Fingal. A wealthy widow, she lives with her grown-up...

June and her father stared for a moment into each other's minds. He looked away first; and with a stab of joy June knew he was afraid of her and that she hated him. It is summer in small town Havenport. Protected from the world by her devoted mother, fifteen-year-old June is content and completely self-absorbed. Her biggest concern is...

She was happy, safe in the joy of being now the only one for Dad, absorbed in caring for him. Twelve-year-old Linda Dalton is besotted with her father, Dennis, who can do no wrong. Everyone and everything else pales in comparison, including Linda's sharp mother, Vera. When cracks suddenly begin to show in the family, Linda weaves a web of...

Grace Bradby meets Janice in Holloway Prison. Grace is doing six months for larceny and Janice, three for the most recent of a series of clumsy shopliftings. Once both women are released, the more hapless Janice very quickly becomes accomplice to a scheme conniving Grace devised during her last weeks in prison: posing as representatives of the Social Services Agency,...

A Spring of Love by Celia Dale introduces us to Esther Williams, who is thirty and single. Her life is one of routine and order; she lives with her grandmother in a small house, takes a seaside holiday each year, and every Thursday, she goes to the cinema alone. Esther is uncertain if she is happy or unhappy; her life...