Miss Mapp

This novel is a strikingly original creation, an arch-schemer and social climber from the English village of Tilling. A fortyish spinster, "anger and the gravest suspicion about everybody had kept her young and on the boil." Elizabeth Mapp spends hours looking out of her window, using opera glasses and a notebook to chart the neighbourhood affairs. Nothing escapes her. Miss Mapp is a hilarious, sharply observed satire that lovingly but pointedly pokes fun at the feuds and foibles of English society in miniature.