Book review: England's Lane, By Joseph Connolly

Already a writer to relish for virtuosic farce and razor-edged comedy of manners, Connolly excels with this deftly woven novel of London suburban dreams and dreads in 1959.

His England's Lane (the symbolism surfaces but never grates) is home to three families of socially anxious shopkeepers. Through a rich, subtle tapestry of monologue and dialogue, Connolly shows what they feel - and hide.

For all the fine period grain (slang, brands, prejudices), he shuns hindsight as we see that winds of change will shake the Lane, "this little island of ours".