Jean Banks, a bright and attractive young doctor, falls suddenly in love with a prominent captain of industry, Victor Pattison. There is only one problem: he is already married, and has a disabled wife whom, as he warns Jean at the outset, he will never leave. From that point on Jean's life changes forever - her own engagement is cancelled, she gives up her hospital career, and even has a discrete abortion in order to avoid complicating their secret affair. But despite her acceptance of these difficulties, slowly her situation becomes harder and harder to bear...

This novel pursues the story of Kitty Shelton from Rosemary Friedman's delightful earlier novels Proofs of Affection and Rose of Jericho. Kitty has watched her beloved husband die and her children grow to adulthood. She takes security from her role as family matriarch, but now her North London Jewish community is riven with dispute about the recent Israeli invasion of Lebanon. At the invitation of her gentlemanly suitor, Holocaust-survivor Maurice Morgenthau, Kitty visits New York - where she learns to please herself and in so doing discovers herself too.

This is one of Rosemary Friedman's best-loved novels. Freddie Lomax is a slick, work-driven city executive. He is popular, good-looking and sociable with a comfortable lifestyle and a successful marriage. This is all placed in jeopardy when, without warning, Freddie is given two hours to clear his desk and he finds himself joining the ranks of the middle-aged unemployed. His confidence that he will find a new job proves unfounded. Readjustment to his new life is difficult and his marriage to Jane begins to suffer.But Freddie has much to learn about the important things in life and he begins a painful journey of self-discovery. He realises that he is not the only one with problems and he applies his talents to a last attempt to save both himself and his relationship. "REVIEW: 'What a story! What a storyteller!' (Daily Mail)

Kitty's husband, Sydney is dead, and eighteen months later, she is still struggling to come to terms with his death. She takes comfort in the lives of her children, and the full comedy and crises of Kitty's circle of family and friends vividly unfold. On holiday to Israel, in between awe-inspiring visits to the Dead Sea and the desert, she gets to know Maurice Morgenthau, reserved New Yorker and survivor of the Nazi concentration camps. The friendship between them grows and Maurice helps Kitty gain a sense of perspective in her life. In turn, Kitty helps Maurice tell his harrowing story of survival for the fist time. "REVIEW: 'Highly recommended for the sheer pleasure it gives' (Literary Review)

In the hottest summer in living memory, Judith Flatland, together with her two children, leaves Boston and the Museum of Fine Arts to follow her husband, Jordan, to Paris, where he is about to finalise a high-profile business deal. Bored with her role as corporate wife, conscious of her age and suddenly aware that she has become sexually invisible, forty-two-year-old Judith feels jealous of and threatened by her nubile daughter. Has life passed her by? Cheating on her marriage and unable to help herself, Judith is drawn into a passionate affair with Felix Dumoulin, an urbane young artist. And so, what begins as curiosity on her part leads to a poignant denouement: Judith must choose between her husband and her lover.

Lorna Brown has everything...so why does she feel so dissatisfied? The clothes, the house, the Poggenpohl kitchen do nothing to give her life meaning. The death of a friend makes her question her existence still further. Then she meets Armand, her daughter's friend, and Lorna's yearning for something different takes shape. Envying the assurance and spontaneity of her daughter and her companions, she suddenly makes a decision and abandons her easy comfort for a squat in Regent's Park. Will Lorna find there the contentment she craves? 'Readers will find it as affecting as it is intelligent' Financial Times

hrough a series of events, in turn hilarious and tragic, we are drawn into the world of the GP. With a growing family, his wife's new career as a writer and his own commitments as a family doctor, life is very hectic. To ease the burden, he takes on a new partner - the colourful Dr Fred Perfect. With his purple taxi, his Zapata moustache and trendy clothes he cuts a dash with the patients at the practice. Fred introduces the doctor to the modern delights of pop music and fashion. But life is not all trendy clothes and fashionable new town-houses: the doctor has some difficult professional challenges to face as well as the personal tragedy of the death of his oldest and closest friend. Beginning with No White Coat and continuing with Love on my List, Patients of a Saint and The General Practice, this novel draws to a close the series following the trials and tribulations of a family doctor.

His Honour Judge Christopher Osgood is utterly unprepared for life on his own when his wife dies. He is completely overwhelmed by a desperate loneliness and he finds himself bewildered by anything from the absence of clean pyjamas to the dress code of his daughters. But as the months pass, he discovers that, as an attractive and eligible widower in late middle age, he is much in demand. Lucille mothers and seduces him, Sally offers friendship and Jo introduces him to her stylish town and country life - but with which one will he find the happiness he has lost and the contentment he is seeking?

After an affair lasting twenty-six years, Jean Banks' married lover dies. Gradually the self-assured Jean is overwhelmed by loneliness, sleeping pills and depression. Routine tasks defeat her - and she avoids suicide only by a twist of fate. In the midst of her unhappiness, a friendship blossoms with Victor's widow, and ultimately life and love are rediscovered. A Second Wife, the sequel to A Loving Mistress, is the story of a very human recovery - the journey from darkness to all-enveloping love.

A delightful series of short stories, providing a composite portrait of women and how the worlds they inhabit have changed over the past 50 years. No longer satisfied with marriage being their only socially acceptable destiny, these women relish their new freedoms as they run hospitals, banks and international businesses. From the spinsterish Miss Phipps, who opens the gate for women to fulfill their dreams and fantasies through her lending library, to the divorced 53-year-old Helen, who road-tests her internet date Dominic and becomes empowered by her new-found ability to make choices, these stories portray women who begin to overturn centuries of tradition, prepare to live fuller lives and to follow their dreams. Rosemary Friedman has a mimic's ear for dialogue and her short stories are like well-aimed hand grenades.

Oscar John has it all: a successful author, he has been happily married to Karen for sixteen years. They have two young children and their life is one of stability and contentment. Suddenly this security is shattered when he meets Marie-Céleste, an elegant doctor, at a dinner party. As his sexual curiosity turns into passion and an all-consuming love, he is completely unprepared for what is to follow ... 'An entertaining read' Financial Times

Clare de Cluzac seems to have all she could ever want but underneath her confident exterior lie the scars of an emotionally brutalised childhood. When her authoritarian, philandering father threatens to sell the family chateau and vineyards, Clare takes a big risk and flies to Bordeaux to run them herself, even though she will have to learn everything from scratch. As she fights to overcome the many obstacles placed - often deliberately - in her way, she confronts old ghosts and grows into her new role as the chatelaine discovering on the way new knowledge and a deeper understanding of her own desires. 'Packed with fascinating information about the labyrinthine world of wine Robert Joseph' Sunday Telegraph 'Impeccably researched ... an enthralling read. Wine Magazine

The young GP is adapting to married life with Sylvia while contending with the endless demands facing a family doctor. His initial worries that Sylvia may be hankering after her glamorous life as a model prove unfounded as she embraces her new role as GP's wife with enthusiasm and competence. Continuing the story begun in No White Coat, the doctor learns to deal both with the personalities and ailments of the patients on his list. As the story comes to a close, he is presented with an even greater challenge: the joys and demands of fatherhood. "REVIEW: 'This...sequel to No White Coat describes with first-hand insight and a delightful humour the day-to-day life of a young doctor in general practice' (Books of the Month)

Elizabeth Westbury, mother of two, has been married to Tim for seventeen years. With her comfortable domestic life and a circle of friends in suburban London, she has all the trappings of a contented existence. However, she has a vague but distressing feeling that life is passing her by. Unable to pinpoint exactly what she is looking for, she craves an escape from the tedious demands of day-to-day tasks. Her dissatisfaction focuses on Dobbie, an old friend, and she convinces herself that an affair with him would give meaning to her pointless existence. This is a highly sensitive and perceptive portrait of a woman who is struggling to define and retain her identity against the relentless minutiae of everyday life.

Fifty-one-year old Arthur Dexter, a city businessman, is deeply shocked by the sudden death of his friend, Willie Boothroyd. The tragedy forces him to reassess his life and he realises he is dominated by the tedium of everyday concerns. To his wife's horror, he buys a block of flats and a small beach café at Whitecliffs-by-the-Sea. He then invites a group of people he meets in a pub to come and live there for the summer to help him run the café. They all have their own reasons for escaping from London, but the exhilarating sea air and change of scene gives the group renewed vigour and enthusiasm, until, by the end of the summer, each one of them has found an unexpected solution to their problems.