Frederica Hatch, the charming, precocious child of sweetly bonkers parents, has an idyllic if spoilt childhood in the grounds of the small, not very good, Dewing college. Everything is perfect – and then she discovers that her father has a secret. Worse still, his secret has a name: the glamorous and untrustworthy Laura Lee French, his first wife. And worst of all, Laura Lee’s new job at Dewing is going to shatter the Hatches’ little world.

'Quirkily romantic, funny, beautifully plotted and written with the sort of painstaking craft that seems effortless... an unalloyed delight'
Sunday Times

'Lipman's wit and style are all her own. She is one of the best comic writers around'
Sunday Telegraph

'As wise as Solomon and as funny as early Joan Rivers'
Maureen Lipman