England's Lane

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOLLINGER EVERYMAN WODEHOUSE PRIZE: AS IF THE ROYLE FAMILY WERE WRITTEN BY MARTIN AMIS'Vibrant tragicomic slices of cosmopolitan Englishness' Independent on Sunday'May well be his masterpiece . . . a rich and compelling drama of life' Daily Mail'Virtuosic farce and razor-edged comedy of manners' IndependentJim and Milly. Stan and Jane. Jonathan and Fiona. Winter, 1959. Three married couples: each living in England's Lane, each with an only child, and each attending to family, and their livelihoods - the ironmonger, the sweetshop and the butcher. Each of them hiding their lies, coping in the only way they know how.'He remains essentially a comic novelist, but one whose work has its dark, even sinister side . . . There is no other novelist today who writes quite like Connolly' Scotsman