Tamsin Oglesby: 6 books

Sophie and Max are a thoroughly modern British couple, cosmopolitan, open-minded. They've even constructed their own eco loo (well, it does save thirty litres of water a day). Then there's Hana and Ali next door. Neighbours, but in every other sense, a world apart. Max is a lawyer, albeit a lawyer...

There are just too many old people. As a government research body seeks to deal with the problems of a maturing population, a family addresses its own. Lyn’s memory starts to go, Alice takes a fall and even Robbie has to face the signs of ageing. Relations are put to the test across three generations....

A clockwork mouse and his child are discarded by children on Christmas Day. Lost and alone, they desperately want to get back home to the toyshop. Russell Hoban’s masterpiece The Mouse and his Child is the tale which has inspired a thousand wonderful stories about what really happens in the toy box when we’re not looking.

TOM: As Shakespeare said, and I agree with him: ‘Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds.’ ANGELA: I don’t think he meant ignore the fact that your lover got married. A charming diplomat and his glamorous new wife ought to be happy. Angela’s first husband was a...

Future Conditional tackles the conundrum of British schooling through a myriad of characters including parents, teachers and Alia, a prodigiously bright young Pakistani refugee and the newest member of the Education Commission. There are big questions to answer: how do we make the system fair? Do we even want to try? And is anyone ready to take lessons from a schoolgirl…?

Bee and Em have been best friends for thirty years: they’re on holiday in rural France, away from the demands of work and family. But just as they’re setting the clocks forward, in steps Chris, a blast from their schooldays’ past. As the evening wears on, the three women joke and fi ght with...