Three single women in their fifties meet when they join a choir. Lucy,
recently widowed, is a cook and food journalist; Joanna, a successful
business woman, never married; Rebecca is a divorced interior decorator.
Each of the women is at a crossroads and they quickly form a bond.
The trio decide to combine their talents to restore a crumbling pile in
Cornwall and turn it into a cookery school and spa. The project brings
its own conflicts, both professional and personal. The novel's themes
touch on the sustaining power of female friendship and how a woman copes
with mid life and onwards.
Prue's narrative voice is warm, witty, wise, very accessible. Her
characters are sympathetic and engaging: very different women but each
with demons to face as she gets older and confronts a future without -
perhaps - a man in it. Her knowledge of food and business adds detail
and zest, enriching an already compelling tale.