But to keep ourselves on our toes, we have a rule that author gender is alternated, girl-boy-girl-boy, and the continents always rotated (with occasional glitches). Uncle Paul delivered on spine-chilling thrills but does not feel like a novel destined to live long in the memory. The novel opens as Meg receives a telegram from her sister Isabel explaining that their older sister Mildred needs help. It starts with sensible Meg receiving a message from older sister (and often overwrought), Isabel about a problem with their half-sister, Mildred. There is an odd referral to - The Sleeping Beauty, in Fremlin's novel which happens to be a sort of peep-show on the pier - a sleeping snake!

Fremlin had been on my ‘must try’ list for years, so I’m very happy to have finally got around to her!This novel unfolds slowly and, like her debut novel, this is much more about the characters than anything else. It’s all very dated too – which, duh, this is a novel originally published in the 1950s, but I found it unpleasant, especially Meg’s boyfriend Freddy (presented as a charming cad, reads as a bully) and the laid-on-thick ageism towards Mildred (who can’t be more than 40!

It seems that Mildred has left Hubert and ended up at a nearby cottage – the very same cottage where she honeymooned with her first husband, Paul, some fifteen years earlier. Now, fifteen years on, Mildred is worried that Paul may be out of prison and looking to take his revenge – especially when she hears strange footsteps scuffling around the cottage in the middle of the night! Celia Fremlin (1914–2009) was born in Kent and spent her childhood in Hertfordshire, before studying at Oxford (whilst working as a charwoman). There’s some marvellous humour here too, especially from the interactions between the various guests at the hotel, from the gallant Captain Cockerill to the stoic Mrs Forrester and her young son, Cedric – one of those insufferable little boys who knows everything and insists on getting his own way.It was compact, compelling and it captured an aspect of the human experience - maternal sleep deprivation.