Web of Belonging - Tapa blanda

Jess has lived peacefully in Shrewsbury with her husband Jacob for many years. He is solid, dependable and treats her well. She is content just to be his wife and to look after 'The Oldies', the relatives they took in one by one as they became helpless and dependent.

Little did they expect the amount of trouble three elderly people could bring. First there is Brenda, the most self-sufficient of the lot and a supporter of worthy causes. Then there is May, a turbulent woman who needs constant watching after punching the health visitor. She rails about a woman who looked after six priests for 45 years and won a medal from the Pope. Finally there is Cousin Nathan, who is of a holy disposition and insists on quoting Scripture at every opportunity.

They live in contented discord until one evening Jacob simply disappears. 'Arrange the funeral,' cries May. Then Jacob is spotted in Ludlow on the arm of a blonde...

Stevie Davies is the Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow at Swansea University and is a novelist, historian and literary critic. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

http://www.steviedavies.com/