An examination of James's representation of the privileges and pains of turn-of-the-century society.

New fiction inspired by the sea, commissioned exclusively for the National Maritime Museum, to mark the 70th anniversary of its opening.

Kate Flynn has always been a clever girl, brought up to believe in herself as something special. Now Kate's forty-three and has given up her university career in London to come home and look after her mother in Firenze, their big house by a lake in Cardiff. Kate meets David Roberts, a friend from the old days and she begins to obsess about him.

A son confesses to his mother that he is cheating on his girlfriend; a student falls in love with her lecturer; a boy becomes aware of the woman, who is pressing up too close against him on the beach. This book features everyday life crackles with electricity sparking between men and women, between parents and children, as well as between friends.

Joyce Stevenson is thirteen when her widowed mother takes them to live with Aunt Vera, a formidable teacher neglected by her unfaithful husband. Joyce watches the two sisters - her aunt's unbending dedication to the life of the mind, her mother worn down by housework - and thinks that each of them is powerless in her own way.

An examination of James's representation of the privileges and pains of turn-of-the-century society.

An improbable coincidence brings Clare back into contact with someone she once had sex with at a teenage party; complicatedly, he is now going out with her best friend, Helly. The encounter needn't have meant anything - it could just have been funny, or embarrassing - but it seems to have the power to shake up everything in Clare's life.

Kate's forty-three and has given up her university career in London to come home and look after her mother in Firenze. When she meets David Roberts, a friend from the old days, she begins to obsess about him: she knows it's because she's bored and hasn't got anything else to do. David is married, dependable: the last type to want an affair.

Spanning five decades of extraordinary change in women's lives, this novel explores the complicated relationships of one family. The young ones of each generation are sure that they can correct the mistakes of their parents, and live better than they did. The truth, of course, is not so obvious.