Libby Purves

Perfect Families: * Tick off museums in the guidebook* Tidy everything away neatly* Work hard and play fair* Show respect for one anotherReal Families: *…

Sarah Penn and Maggie Reave are sisters, as different as a tabby and a tiger. Sarah has married kind, reliable Leo and settled contentedly into…

Even her closest friend agreed that Shark Grayson wasn't fit to keep her baby. A heroin addict, living in a sordid London squat, she was…

Catherine and Caroline, Toby and Mark were globetrotting siblings: British 'diplo-brats', whose childhood homes lay in Italy or Israel, France or Washington DC - wherever…

What makes a wife and mother, pillar of the community and partner in a cosy tea-shop (The Bun in the Oven) suddenly run away to…

Sheila Harrison always looks forward to the descent of the summer visitors onto 'Seafret', her tall brick house right on the front at Blythney, in…

Alice McDonald has escaped all the obvious traps that lie in wait for women. She loves her job but enjoys her clever, spirited children too;…

A perfect child: * Dresses neatly and practises the violin before breakfast * Comes top of the class and is captain of everything * Is…

Kit Milcourt - impatient, quirky, idealistic and brilliant - has been a climber, diver in exotic waters and affluent young city banker. Now, because of…