Tread Softly

Lorna, thirty-nine, is married to misanthropic Ralph, who in turn is wedded to his twenty-seven pipes and his artificial-grass business. In fact, it's a ménage à trios, the third party being Lorna's Monster, a gleefully sadistic personification of her panic attacks. The Monster has a field day when, after a botched foot operation, Lorna is sent to convalesce among the deaf and demented inmates of a nursing home from hell, where to staff have more problems than the patients. But, despite her surroundings, she begins to blossom, making new friends, discovering untapped talents and even a reawakened interest in sex, thanks to the attentions of an ardent young care-worker. She even gets offered a challenging new job. Meanwhile Ralph is being sued by a vindictive business client and fears he will lose his house and his livelihood. In another of her wickedly black comedies Wendy Perriam chronicles an unconventional marriage, showing the bond that can... 'One of the most interesting unsung novelists of her generation' Sunday Telegraph