IoS paperback review: Hidden Treasures, By Fern Britton

Having divorced her sleazy husband, Helen Merrifield leaves London to start a new life in the sleepy village of Pendruggan. She wants a new man, but can't choose between historian Piran ("handsome but horrible") and vicar Simon ("not so handsome but sweet"). Thankfully, Penny, a television producer girlfriend, arrives to work in the area, and helps Helen make up her mind.

Hidden Treasures, Fern Britton's second novel, reads like an extended pitch for an untaxing comedy-drama series on ITV1. I can imagine it now: the Cornish locations would look pretty on camera. Martin Clunes would probably star in it. It'd be the sort of thing you'd watch for 10 minutes on a Sunday evening before changing the channel in search of something a little less mind-numbingly dull.