Tea with Mr.Rochester - Softcover

"Her descriptions are exquisite and her tone poised between the wry and the romantic." -- Isobel Montgomery, The Guardian, 13 September 2003

"Hers is a tightly drawn, delicately observed world...she can capture this England as acurately as Orwell did." -- Lucy Lethbridge, The Tablet, 8 November 2003

'The stories recall Katherine Mansfield and Rosamond Lehmann... The central characters' cowed exteriors conceal poetic, romantic souls.' -- The Observer November 2003

'There is much to admire in these stories... a writer whose prose is consistently, involvingly beautiful.' -- Matthew Dennison in The Spectator October 2003

When these captivating and at times bizarre stories were published posthumously in 1949, Angus Wilson wrote: 'It appears no exaggeration to say that Frances Towers' death in 1948 may have robbed us of a figure of more than purely contemporary significance. At first glance one might be disposed to dismiss Miss Towers as an imitation Jane Austen, but it would be a mistaken judgment, for her cool detachment and ironic eye are directed more often than not against the sensible breeze that blasts and withers, the forthright candour that kills the soul. Miss Towers flashes and shines now this way, now that, like a darting sunfish.' 'At her best her prose style is a shimmering marvel,' wrote the "Independent on Sunday",' and few writers can so deftly and economically delineate not only the outside but the inside of a character...There's always more going on than you can possibly fathom.' Five of the stories were read on BBC Radio 4.