In their lovely Cotswolds village, Janet and Susan are known simply as ‘the girls’.<\/b> Partners in love and work, co-proprietors of a picturesque shop, they lead an enviably peaceful life.<\/p>\n
But when a moment of surprising passion disrupts the equilibrium of their world, the girls’ lives take a deeply unsettling turn.<\/p>\n
First comes motherhood. Then comes murder. <\/b><\/p>\n
Part-dark comedy, part-crime thriller, part-cosy love story, John Bowen’s The Girls <\/i>is a novel like none other. Told with warmth and affection, yet laced with dark unease, ‘the girls’ will ensure you never look on Middle England quite so quaintly again.<\/p>\n
‘Startlingly offbeat’ Gore Vidal<\/b><\/p>\n
‘Absolutely wicked’ Armistead Maupin<\/p>\n
‘[For] those who feel Barbara Pym-ish on some days and Stephen King-ish on others . . . The Girls<\/i> charms us as only certain tales ‘of village life’ can’ Washington Post<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In their lovely old Cotswolds village, Janet and Susan are known to all the other villagers as ‘the girls’ – a fixture. Partners in love and work, co-proprietors of a picturesque shop specialising in the work of local artisans and farmers, they lead an enviable, enviably settled life. So it’s no catastrophe when Sue, the younger of the two, feels the need to take a month to travel on her own, leaving Jan alone to run their stall at the Inland Waterways Rally Craft Fair. Nor is it any real threat when a kindly gay man named Alan lends Jan a hand in Sue’s absence, or when the two wind up sharing some wine and even a bunk for the night. If Jan turns out to be pregnant some weeks after Sue’s return to the nest, what’s that but cause for joy? And when Alan happens to come visiting, by and by, finding the delighted girls raising a beautiful baby boy, who can blame him for wanting to share in a small part of their bliss?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[68],"product_tag":[26949,26829,26831,28010,26849],"class_list":["post-118194","product","type-product","status-publish","product_cat-general-fiction","product_tag-classic-fiction","product_tag-comic-humorous-crime-mystery","product_tag-humorous-fiction","product_tag-lesbian","product_tag-thriller-suspense-fiction","pa_book_author-bowen-john","pa_cover-paperback","pa_dewey-823-914-edition23","pa_edition-1st-paperback-ed","pa_imprint-vintage-classics","pa_language-english","pa_pages-8757","pa_publisher-vintage-classics","pa_readership-general-trade-code-k","first","onbackorder","taxable","shipping-taxable","purchasable","product-type-simple"],"yoast_head":"\n