Me-Time Tales: Tea breaks for mature women and curious men

Women you know: your friend, boss, mother-in-law, sister, wife, they're unpicked here. Readers' initial amusement may be replaced, on reflection, with some disturbance. This collection of stories lightly observes female behaviour with subtle reference to their males. There's poignancy too over infertility, domestic entrapment, and refusal to accept ageing. Ironic takes on moral dilemmas over infidelity and honesty begin early as a teenager is forced to face her shallowness in valuing physical features. Food, its allure and its problems, crops up in three stories. One story explores a novel form of surreptitious abuse. There's even a ghost and nod towards current interest in ancestry. Readers who have enjoyed Sue Townsend and Fay Weldon should feel at home with Me-Time Tales, especially as its corollary, Curious Men: he-time tales, will be following in the near future.