Round Ringford seems to be everything an idyllic English village should be: there are tennis matches, gossip in the local shop, the barn dance. Everything is comfortingly familiar. Yet behind this enchanted exterior there is a darker core of loneliness and deceit... Two new inhabitants lend excitement to the scene. Simon Standing is just back from America with plans to liven things up, but he soon finds he is no match for the young women in the village. Then there's George, who prefers the gentler pleasures of Ivy Beasley's famous cooking. But as the summer wears on, both Simon and George find themselves facing a dilemma. And someone, for sure, is going to get hurt. Wonderfully strong characters... a first-rate story of English village life, beautifully observed and very well described Publishing News