Thomas Hinde

4 halfsisters meet at the sickbed of their domineering and mostly absent father. The 4 women of different generation, background, religion and sexual orientation seem to have nothing more in common than the genes of Stephen Upton. During their stay, however they find out they may need sisterhood more than they would ever thought possible. Elizabeth, the oldest, is succesfull in her career, but one can't say the same thing for her personal life. She remains unmarried, and has only ever been in love with a man out of her reach. Mary, the second daughter, accomplished quite the opposite. She has married multiple times in search for... For what actually? but has only found love in the arms of her last husband, who was killed in an accident. Alex is the 3rd daughter, married with children, she is easily mistaken for a naiv housewife, but there is more to her than one might think. And then there is the young Ronnie, the daughter of the chicana housekeeper who has the upton blue eyes. As time passes the sisters find out they have more in common than a father, or even the horrible secret he has laid upon every one of them...

"No city in Britain has a history like Bath's. Others have exploited their mineral waters ... and many have been holiday resorts. But none has ever been the country's alternative capital as Bath was for almost a hundred years, a place to which a large part of society came annually and just about everyone who was anybody visited at least once : from writers and artists such as Samuel Pepys, William Beckford, Thomas Gainsborough, Henry Fielding and Fanny Burney to actors and playwrights like Mrs. Siddons and Richard Brinsley Sheridan. James II's Queen to a bath in order to become pregnant ; lesser bathers hoped to cure gout or pox. Eventually most were found at the Pump Room, the heart of Bath's social scene. There over glasses of the celebrated mineral water, gossip was exchanged and duels or elopements arranged. Thomas Hinde describes the most curious, amusing and scandalous personalities and events with made this such a unique community in the eighteenth century and which still makes Bath such a popular city today."--back over.

"With their village under threat from a horrendous new motorway, twenty local residents meet to plan the defence. The trouble is they can't agree on a solution. Seventy-year-old Lorna Furnival views what follows with a mixture of amusement and despair, including a hippy protest and a visit from the local MP. The risk of destruction leads to long suppressed lusts and loves being exposed whilst the planned closure of the village school gives the schoolmistress a nervous breakdown. But does she hold the key to their salvation?"--Publisher's description.