Helen with the High Hand

James Ollerenshaw had his life mapped out in comfortable, solitary certainty until his great-step-niece Helen walked back into it. She's young, she's determined, and she has absolutely no intention of letting a wealthy old bachelor remain unmarried and unconnected. Set in Bursley, one of Bennett's immortal Five Towns, this is a sharply funny battle of wills between a man who has never been told no and a woman who intends to start. The comedy unfolds through a series of encounters that expose the absurdities of provincial English society - the rituals of courtship, the calculations of inheritance, the way money both complicates and reveals character. Bennett writes with affectionate precision about the middle classes of the Potteries, capturing their speech, their ambitions, their self-deceptions. Helen is no simpering heroine - she knows exactly what she wants and has the wit to pursue it. This is Bennett at his most readable: socially observant, gently satirical, and utterly compelling. Perfect for readers who enjoy the comedies of manners from this era - think Austen updated for Edwardian England.