MAYER WAKEFIELD applauds Rosamund Pike’s punchy and tragic portrayal of a multi-tasking mother and high court judge
ROSE, mourning her mother, uncertain about her marriage and resentful that her plans to escape small-town life have been frustrated by events, is working at a retirement home in The Cottingley Cuckoo by AJ Elwood (Titan, £8.99).
One of its residents is different to the others. Mrs Favell is rather grand, has all her wits about her and takes a not very kindly interest in Rose.
She shows her a letter supposedly written in 1921 to Arthur Conan Doyle by a man in Cottingley whose granddaughter has had an extraordinary and well-evidenced encounter with fairies. Rose is fascinated by the tale, though repelled by the old woman.

MAT COWARD presents a peculiar cabbage that will only do its bodybuilding once the summer dies down

A heatwave, a crimewave, and weird bollocks in Aberdeen, Indiana horror, and the end of the American Dream

A corrupted chemist, a Hampstead homosexual and finely observed class-conflict at The Bohemia

Beet likes warmth, who doesn’t, so attention to detail is required if you’re to succeed, writes MAT COWARD