[ book tip by Ann Morgan ] Some books are chic simply virtue of their setting. Such a one if The Good Plain Cook by Bethan Roberts. 

It is the summer of 1936 and a Sussex girl, Kitty Allen, is in search of more than the calm domesticity she sees played out around her in the lives of her family and friends. She finds something of what she is looking for working as a cook at the house of an American woman, Ellen Steinberg, a self-styled Bohemian pursuing a relationship with a married writer whilst paying her eleven year-old daughter scant regard.  

Yet the bright, Bohemian dream is cracked and broken; as soon as Kitty gets close to it, the beguiling, care-free world of the Steinbergs begins to unravel, spilling pain, revelations and bitterness all over Kitty’s clean kitchen floor. A bold debut, there is a lot about The Good Plain Cook to like. Here and there, the narrative feels a little threadbare and it is possible to see the skeleton of previous drafts looming through, yet the pacing and character development is generally well-controlled. Publisher Serpent’s Tail should be congratulated for providing a platform for work like this.

[ book info ] Roberts, Bethan : The Good Plain Cook. (original language: English) Serpent's Tail,