'Satisfyingly detailed and juicy... an utter treat' Amy Liptrot 'Friendship, love and a gorgeous old house. A beautiful story beautifully told. I loved inhabiting The Wreck' Jessica Stanley Two couples pursue their dream of communal living in the English countryside – and then it all comes tumbling down Charlotte and Francesca were best friends at university in the mid-1970s. But tensions coursed beneath their natural affection, deepening when Fran got together with Charlotte’s friend Adrian, and the two women drifted apart. When Fran contacts Charlotte out of the blue with an unusual proposal – an invitation to live with her and Adrian in the rambling house they’ve bought in the countryside – Charlotte impulsively persuades her partner, Bill, to accept this tantalising promise of a new kind of community. At first their new life feels utopian; life and space are shared joyfully. But it doesn’t take long for old tensions to rise to the surface, shattering their illusions and showing