Jane Feaver was born in Durham in 1964. After reading English at university she worked at the Pitt Rivers Museum and then in the Poetry Department at Faber and Faber. In 2001 she moved to Devon with her daughter. Her first novel, According to Ruth, was published to critical acclaim in 2007.

'She has a wonderful way of teasing out the comedy of people struggling to deal with what the poet Frances Cornford called "the long littleness of life' The Times

'Jane Feaver has proved an expert at creating a sense of place ... tender, imaginative prose' Sunday Herald

There is more going on in the village of Buckleigh than meets the eye and its sense of community is often as much a curse as a blessing. While Barry, the local mayor, is driven into the arms of tough single mother, Debbie, his father lusts after a former chorus girl, whose breath now smells of 'cabbages and chocolates'. Meanwhile a farmer's wife is driven to murder by her unfaithful husband, a carnival queen faces an uncertain future and the postman is in danger of realising his sexual fantasies. Playing on in the background of each of these wry, interlinked tales is the village brass band, swilling cider and keeping a sharp eye out for any misbehaviour.

'Ambitious .... Its subtlety and accuracy make it a rare pleasure in itself' Guardian

'These lives are captured in surprising, sometimes shocking ways. The timelessness of Jane Feaver's fiction conceals a quality of enchanting newness. This is a unique voice' Philip Hensher