Refracted through the eyes of this memorable narrator, A Gate at ... more

When a young woman loses her memory after a traumatic car accident, she decides to recuperate in her palatial family home - a gorgeous mansion set high on the cliffs - which is about to be sold. Seizing this as her last opportunity to enjoy summer there, and hoping it will stimulate her memory, which is alarmingly blank for large sections of her childhood, she moves in. But instead of the peace she is seeking, she begins to relive someone else's memories of the house, and her every movement stirs another presence. As the tension builds, her trust in both old and new relationships is tested, and tragic secrets begin to surface.
A haunting image of a white wisplike veil winds through her dreams and into unfolding events - and the unveiling of the final secret leaves her changed forever.

Alice wants to make the most of life - after all, she knows how fragile it can be - and knows she never feels more alive than when she's cooking.
Babetta has spent a lifetime tending the garden of her tiny house on the Italian coast, growing food to feed a family now grown and gone.
One summer these two women are brought together in a crumbling Mediterranean villa, with the shared language of food and the soil they grow it from. There, under the heat of the Italian sun, or the shade of the pomegranate tree, secrets will be spoken, fears and hopes shared. But life's lessons are not learnt easily.

Recipe For Life is a novel about discovering how life never stops surprising us, and about how, with a little love and courage, its flavours can be richer than we ever ... more

A Single Man is an exclusive Vintage Classic that has been made into a film starring Julianne Moore and Colin Firth and directed by Tom Ford.

First published 1964.