MODERN FICTION. The eagerly awaited new novel from the bestselling author When Mary meets gorgeous Monty, heir to a stately pile, romantic bliss seems assured. But after the roof falls in and the pictures are flogged, happiness is thin on the ground. Beth exchanges Holland Park for simple weekends at the country cottage her banker husband's bonus has bought. They only offered a little over the asking price -- why don't the locals like them? Uber-WAG Alexandra needs a country mansion -- fast. Her footballer boyfriend is being transferred and time is running out. There must be a Hello!-tastic pile somewhere? Morag is the terror of the village. She's a Stalin against slug pellets who wears hemp trousers and makes her own Weetabix. When the village launches an allotment project they become dramatically embroiled in a bitter struggle over sex, power and money, which threatens to blight more than everyone's carrots.