Formica

Formica begins in 1950s Richmond with the authors family struggling in the aftermath of a war that took her father to Crete to fight and then Poland as a prisoner of war. At the Formica kitchen table, Maggie's mother is reciting poems while chopping the veggies for tea. Maggie listens while tying her boots for marching practice. Poems follow her as she makes her way in the world - working as a typist, doing her OE, becoming a wife, a mother and grandmother.

An unsentimental writer of honesty and humour, Maggie nods to the lives of all women of her generation - too often defined by their fertility and kitchen appliances when there was fun and fulfilment to be had elsewhere. Not that Maggie doesn't adore her Kenwood mixer, but it lines up with abiding friendships, granddaughters, travel, sex and the joy of words.