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“... Forster’s first impression on reading Meredith, and for many this slight became the last word. Janet Davey’s poised novel of domestic love, with a company man from Berkshire as a central character, has a calculated smallness of scope. Jerry Dorney’s job, never specified, underwrites a life of ‘getting and spending’; there is the house ‘with ...”

“... Janet Davey​ ’s books scrutinise contemporary lives, but are reluctant to claim a guiding theme. They are more interested in the failures of intention. The tales they begin to tell meander and lose direction, refusing to crystallise into plot. Her central characters seem baffled by their own histories and motives, and unsettled by those of others ...”

“... went to see An Angel at My Table, Jane Campion’s film about her fellow New Zealander, the writer Janet Frame. In the film we see Frame, played by Kerry Fox, recently released from a long spell in a mental hospital, given shelter and support by a white-goateed older writer called Frank Sargeson, played by Martyn Sanderson. She lives and types in his garden ...”

“... preliminary tremors produced in anticipation of this volcanic biography. Henderson’s mother, Janet, had served as a nurse in the First World War, then returned to lose her own battle in Britain. Thirty-nine and unmarried, she became pregnant within weeks of the armistice, much to the horror of her well-off Dundee family. Neat penetrates the various ...”

“... total mortgage payments will be £15.8 billion a year higher than they were in December 2021. Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, has already demanded a £3 billion mortgage protection fund, to help people whose homes might be repossessed. Keir Starmer is unlikely to say anything that smacks of fiscal flexibility, but will seek to make as much ...”