The Trouble-Makers

The Trouble-Makers (1963) was Celia Fremlin''s fourth novel and - as Chris Simmons contends in his new preface to this Faber Finds edition - has a case to be considered among her very best.

Katharine is a suburban housewife, desultorily unemployed, unhappily married, struggling to keep up appearances but consoled to some degree by the even more aggravated woes of her next-door neighbour Mary - until, that is, Katharine is brought to the disturbing realisation that Mary''s predicament is in fact substantially worse.

''A cleverly devised story. A chorus of nicely-characterised suburban wives speculate on Mary''s troubles. Fremlin builds up the whole thing into a crescendo of horror.'' Sunday Times

''One again Fremlin shows how incomparably more chilling is her quiet, semifactual style than some of the hysterical sentimentalities from Over the Water.'' Guardian