Love In Idleness

A Tuscan holiday of love, mystery and midsummer nights' dreams . . .

At the Casa Luna, Cortona, friends and relations of the Noble family gather for a fortnight's holiday in the enchanted Italian hills: Daniel, an American academic, is under pressure to marry Ellen, a witty and successful shoe designer; Hemani, doctor and single mother, is intrigued by Ivo-trickster, charmer, film critic . . . and the man Ellen most loathes in the world.

Polly, meanwhile, hopes her domineering mother-in-law, "a woman who can curdle mayonnaise at thirty paces", will help transform her feral children and give her some time alone with her workaholic husband. The difference between English and American perceptions of love and friendship, generosity and meanness can, they all hope, be overcome by a spell in paradise.

Wonderfully evocative and deliciously funny, 'Love In Idleness' is a contemporary comedy of delights - a novel full of surprising twists and conclusions about family, friendship, literature and, most of all, about love.