SUMMER BIRD-CAGE

A gripping story of sibling rivalry. Louise, beautiful and sophisticated, marries wealthy novelist Stephen Halifax. Sarah, recently graduated from Oxford, is thrown back into family matters. Louise's life becomes one of parties, gossip columns and glamour. Sarah, now living in London, begins to discover a newfound freedom, only glimpsing her sister's fashionable life, but as rumours of infidelity in Louise's marriage surface, Sarah finds that her sister, beneath her cool exterior, may not be the woman she thought she was. One wonders if Margaret Drabble bases any of this on herself, since she is the younger sister of the novelist A. S. Byatt. First published in 1963, another well written contemporary picture of young women's lives. 213pp, paperback.