Nightingale Wood (VMC)

Introduced by Sophie Dahl

'What luxury to stumble upon this quirky book, and the fascinating modern woman who wrote it. It is a rare unadulterated pleasure and high time for its encore' Sophie Dahl

Life is not quite a fairytale for Viola. Left penniless, the young widow is forced to live with her late husband's dour family in a joyless old house. There's Mr Wither, a tyrannical miser; Mrs Wither, who is certain that her son married beneath him; and two unlovely sisters-in-law - one of whom is secretly in love with the chauffeur.

Only the prospect of the charity ball can raise Viola's spirits - especially as Victor Spring, the local Prince Charming will be there. But Victor's intentions toward our Cinderella are, in short, not quite honourable . . .

'Nightingale Wood is very impressive . . . Gibbons is superb on middle class life in the years immediately before the Second World War, on the erosions of class division and ongoing snobbery . . . relying on icicle wit and sharp observation to lambast conventional morality. Gibbons also displays a tender side. There is real sadness in some of her characters, instead of deliberately heightened rural dolour - and it winds up as a love story that would please Jane Austen . . . I've loved every minute' Sam Jordison, Guardian