The Golden Hour, By William Nicholson

The third volume of Nicholson's Sussex Downs saga, set over seven days in July, slips down like a fruity Pimm's.

Thanks to the fluid third-person narration, newcomers to the series will have no trouble getting inside the heads of a cast of middle-class angsters who include a female conservation officer and an IT specialist whose brand of steady adoration is about to drive the conservation officer away.

Like all good popular fiction, Nicholson's novel reflects back his readers' hopes and disappointments in soothing therapeutic prose.