Laura and Putnam have been friends for a long time. Theirs is a happy meeting of minds, with long evenings spent huddled in an ancient pub by the Thames, where they share office gossip, reflect on their teenage passions, and lament the state of the world.

Recently, though, Putnam has been harder to reach: he has lost his father, and the magazine to which he has dedicated his life has been hijacked by an insufferable new editor, Simon call me Shove Halfpenny. Laura has her own problems: with a prickly mother and a tricky past, and in a beautiful and indifferent city, her day-to-day life is precarious. But as Putnam starts to sink into despondency, she must try to bring him back.

The Palm House offers us Gwendoline Rileys trademark keen observation and wit, and leaves us – somehow – with a curious sense of possibility. It is a slender masterpiece from one of Britains finest prose stylists.

Format: Hardcover
Published: 2026
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Pages: 224
Language: English
ISBN 10: 1035021048
ISBN 13: 9781035021048