The Good Listener

Toby is a very plausible young scoundrel: good at winning confidences - and also at staving off troublesome emotions. On the point of leaving Cambridge he meets Maisie who is beautiful tense and vulnerable.<br><br>She falls in love. He does not. He takes what he can as young men do. But Maisie tries to force the issue and he makes off - warned by a friend's disastrous shotgun marriage. There will always be other girls more cheerful and just as willing . . .<br><br>And Toby never worries about minor problems like the way separation wounds its victim. The bitter surprises still in store disconcert him only briefly.<br><br>After all a good listener will always get by.<br><br>'With her characteristic mixture of sense and sensibility Pamela Hansford Johnson creates a whole gallery of convincing characters entangled in a web of drifting relationships.' <i>Sunday Telegraph</i><br><br>'Beautifully rendered . . . memorable settings and lively characters' <i>Financial Times</i><br><br>'The light shining steadily through each page of Pamela Hansford Johnson's new novel is the light of quality' <i>The Times</i><br><br>'A stunning performance' Nina Bawden <i>Daily Telegraph</i>