FROM THE AUTHOR OF A VAN OF ONE’S OWN

When Biddy Wells’s elderly mother is suddenly struck down with a mysterious illness, Biddy moves her into the spare bedroom, little knowing how long the period of convalescence will last.

Through the months that follow, the two women have to re-inhabit the close domestic proximity that they’d abandoned decades before and learn how to co-exist within a tangled web of emotional need, resentment and dependence.

Eventually, Biddy manages to find a supported flat that’s ideal for her mother. She settles quickly and, abandoning her morbidly stoic outlook on life, falls passionately in love with another resident. Biddy can only watch from the sideline as her mother embarks on an unlikely romance.

Told with humour, wry insight, and refreshing honesty, Scrabble in the Afternoon examines the complicated, frustrating and ultimately rewarding story of how a daughter can come to terms with caring wholeheartedly for a mother. It also shows how a mother and daughter relationship can change and develop as life continues to offer fresh challenges and joys.