A ghost wanders into the drawing-room before dinner. She is well dressed, aristocratic. On the table lies Eva Rice’s new book – pink and encouraging-looking. She picks it up, expecting to be quickly bored by this fluffy modern rubbish. But within minutes she is hooked, and a broad smile spreads across her face. ‘How thrill-making!’ she whispers, before settling in. Who is this elegant phantom? 

Rice has written an absolute treat. Her novel is set in the 1950s, against a backdrop of burgeoning adolescence, crumbling country houses, rock and roll, glamorous cocktail parties and hormone-inducing Americans. The War is over, rationing has ended, and it seems as if the party is just beginning. Teddy boys