SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOLLINGER EVERYMAN WODEHOUSE AS IF THE ROYLE FAMILY WERE WRITTEN BY MARTIN AMIS'Vibrant tragicomic slices of cosmopolitan Englishness' Independent on Sunday'May well be his masterpiece . . . a rich and compelling drama of life' Daily Mail'Virtuosic farce and razor-edged comedy of manners' IndependentJim and Milly. Stan and Jane. Jonathan and Fiona. Winter, 1959.Three married each living in England's Lane, each with an only child, and each attending to family, and their livelihoods - the ironmonger, the sweetshop and the butcher.Each of them hiding their lies, coping in the only way they know how.'He remains essentially a comic novelist, but one whose work has its dark, even sinister side . . . There is no other novelist today who writes quite like Connolly' Scotsman