The Piano Playing Fur Coat and Other Stories

The adventures of nine members of a large extended family are each told in their own chapter. The stories are the first instalments of the lives of Milly, living thousands of miles from home, of Enderby, of someone called Erin, and Mary and her unusual piano teacher, Letitia. We find out about the family's French connection and the life of Mr. Lefevre and his wife Yvette in a beautiful village across the channel; we meet Jordan, a bored but observant teenager who sees something suspicious from his window, Marlon who needed to disappear quickly for a while, and Charlie standing up for himself and his classmates.

'Mary watched as, what looked like a bear on a bike, careered through the gates, avoiding the central post but hitting the rise in the flagstone path which led to the bin store, at such a speed I knew, having once done this myself, that they were about to meet with an inevitable accident.'

'The gym users heaved and sweated, lifted and stretched and when they had finished, strutted back to their cars in the car park, some to meet friends in the pub and some, like Enderby, home to a meal of lean, oven cooked organic chicken breast, avocado and pine nut salad and a kale, apple and mango smoothie.'

'All Jordan saw was the vague profile of someone stepping backwards out of their French windows and stop abruptly. Once the dog had been called back inside, and the light had come on and gone off again, the figure next door bent forward and pulled out something heavy from the illuminated rear room.'

'At this point Uncle Marcus blustered down the stairs from their apartment above. Milly did not make out what, exactly, he was complaining about but Aunt Jennifer seemed to understand and slammed the ledger, in which she recorded every sum of money, large or small, being spent from, or paid in, to the caf?s old fashioned till, down on the table, and stormed upstairs.'

'As Mr Lefevre bumbles out into his lush green garden, his next door neighbour hears him quietly talking to himself- "My 60th year, my planned-for retirement, at last some time to be more creative...'

'Her intuition was correct. Erin, who had lived in the flat above Mabel on Chiswick Grove, kept Mabel in her sights and followed the route of the slightly hunched figure to the Newsagents on the next corner where the small figure disappeared on her way through large gates into Summerfield Park, beyond.'

'As Jimmy arrived at the corner of the far edge of the church's land, Charlie was ready at the corner of the building.'

'The baggage staff were efficient and polite and Marlon found himself heading for the escalator and departure lounge within minutes. However, next came the initial security and then full bag x-ray and passport checks - this was the real test, both of the forger's skills and of his own nerve and calmness.'