The Maiden Dinosaur

If it is difficult to accept middle-age, is it harder for those who are no longer beautiful and passionate or, especially harder, for those who have never known love? Sarah Vincent is fifty and, like her group of friends, she is resigned to the absurdities of middle-age but over the course of a summer Sarah discovers that life can shatter the past, deeply-held faiths are destroyed and she discovers that new beginnings, and new love, have always existed for her.

Janet McNeill is one of the great writers of the disillusions of middle age, with a tender and unflinching understanding of the conflicts of family life. Her perceptive characterisation and intelligent story-telling make her novels more valuable than many that are writ much larger. (The Observer)