Clementine Hope comes from a family where all the women are named after dead heroines. She frets about this. She also frets about upsetting people and then also the more serious stuff – such as crime, disease and illness. All in all, she worries about everything. One of her sisters, Ophelia, is completely the opposite and following her Great Aunt Elvira leaving her a house; they both end up living together.

Along with the house, Clementine has been left a collection of fairy tales. Some of which are ones told in the tradition of Aunt Elvira’s family, others more recognisable tales. They help Clementine see life more clearly and realise that life is for living not for worrying about. Her fears threaten the love of her neighbour’s son and Clementine has to make choices and changes.

A novel full of messages and flashes of inspiration. It is told in a mix of flashback and present tense. The flashback is told as it is happening but at the beginning of each chapter are one or two short paragraphs from the present until almost at the end when the reader has caught up with Clementine’s life. This is an okay read, not one I’d rave about even though it’s enjoyable. The cover and title are excellent, once you’ve settled into the novel their appropriateness becomes evident. I would certainly be prepared to try out another of Cobbold’s novels. ( )

Clementine Hope is fortyish divorced with a very comfortable middle class provincial life and sleeps with a condom under her pillow in case a rapist breaks in. Her timidity leaves her a perpetual onlooker can she change and take the risks that simply loving requires? I enjoyed this amusing, wry and incredibly middle class story. Luckily The Guardian says she is a feminist writer so thats okay. ( )