Shena Mackay delves into the complexities of human relationships and the hidden desires of the psyche. Her writing is celebrated for its sharp observation, dry wit, and incisive commentary on social conventions. Mackay masterfully unearths the contradictions between outward appearances and the inner lives of her characters. Her prose is thought-provoking, inviting readers to explore the darker, often unsettling, corners of human experience.
A wonderful collection of short stories by the doyenne of the form, a writer known for `the Mackay vision, suburban - as kitsch, as unexceptional, and yet as rich in history and wonder as a plain Victorian terrace house, its threshold radiant with tiling and stained-glass birds of paradise encased in leaded lights'- Guardian.
One of Shena Mackay's most acclaimed novels. A story of long consequences, betrayal, dark humour and redemption.
When Percy and Betty Harlency abandon their seedy Streatham pub, for the Copper Kettle Tearoom in Kent, life for their daughter April changes dramatically. She is befriended by the wonderfully dangerous Ruby, whose red hair and brutal home life emphasise her love of fire, and by the immaculately dressed Mr Greenridge who likes to follow her around the village. Mingling the innocent with the sinister and laced with the tragic and the bizarre, this is a rare evocation of a 1950s childhood.
The story of two women living in the Earls Court area of London. When, with the fecklessness of youth, Sidonie O'Neill becomes the lover of her neighbours, Pam and Lenny, she finds herself in a state of limbo as she veers between the two.
Daphne and Rex live lives of well-to-do elegance while Rex's brother Stanley scrimps for tobacco and Camp coffee. Rex's daughter has also become a victim; her cruel husband has turned her into an eccentric skivvy. If life is a bowl of cherries, there are always those left with the bruised remnants.