Anita Brookner

As the solitary child of mild and gentle parents, Jane is fascinated and astounded by her exotically European aunt, Dolly....

Paul Sturgis is a retired bank manager who lives alone in a dark little flat. He walks alone and dines alone, seeking out and taking pleasure in small exchanges with strangers....

Hartmann was a German, Fibich an orphan of World War II. Forty years on their friendship endures....

When Anna Durrant is reported missing her friends seem unconcerned at her disappearance. After all, her life has been one of concealment....

When Rachel becomes involved in the lives of the Livingstones it is with an acute appreciation of their home - beautifully furnished and richly decorated....

Enigmatic Claire is 30 and lives alone. When she meets Martin Gibson, a faded scholar, she becomes inordinately interested....

Born to elegant but frivolous parents, Harriet grows up ignored and unguided, and retains a curious innocence....

Moving between Nice and London, The Bay of Angels makes the point that not everyone needs conventional relationships to be happy....

Beatrice considers herself to be delicate and sensitive, idle and confused. Forced into early retirement, she has an unashamed and romantic desire to be rescued by the ideal man....

Born in 1948 and unready for the sixties, they had high hopes of the lives they would lead....

At seventy-three, Herz is facing an increasingly bewildering world. He cannot see his place in it or even work out what to do with his final years....

When cautious Emma Roberts goes to France to carry out research into 17th century garden design, she finds a reliable diversion from her studies....