A baby, a deadly secret and ruined dreams - this month's retro reads: THE GIRLS by John Bowen, THE WEATHER IN THE STREETS by Rosamond Lehmann, THE ASCENT OF RUM DOODLE by W. E. Bowman

In an idyllic 1970s Cotswolds village, lovers Jan and Sue run a gift shop selling hand-crafted smocks, clogs and jams.

But after an escaped boar destroys the shop, Sue goes on a misjudged Greek holiday and Jan sleeps with gentle, gay Alan at a craft fair, resulting in a baby.

She and Sue happily raise the child until Alan visits and, on discovering his son, asks to play a role in his life.

Threatened, Sue commits an unforgivable act that comes back to haunt them, especially as the summer heat wafts a stench from the septic tank . . .

Dark, yet laugh-out-loud funny, this glorious crime-thriller subversion of a rural dream is pin-sharp, offbeat and rich in local characters.

Re-reading a novel you loved in your 20s is a dangerous risk but here the reward is to love it all over again.

First encountered in the prequel, Invitation To The Waltz, Olivia, now ten years older and separated from her husband, meets up again with rich, handsome Rollo, an old family friend.

Married to a ‘frail’ wife, he and Olivia begin a passionate affair – all secret phone calls and anonymous hotel rooms – but where weak Rollo wants simple, earthy pleasure, Olivia sacrifices her intimate hopes, fears and physical health to keep him. It’s an age-old story of women’s lives but told with raw, emotional honesty that, in 1936, was rare and shocking. And still is.

Before Ripping Yarns, there was Rum Doodle . . .

This is a pitch-perfect, uproarious parody of a stiff-upper-lip British mountaineering expedition to conquer Rum Doodle, the world’s highest mountain (40,000-and-a-half feet) led by hapless, optimistic Binder and his unwisely chosen team including Jungle, the always-lost navigator and Prone, the always-ill doctor.

Desperate to create camaraderie, Binder is oblivious to reality: his men hide in a crevasse, drinking ‘medicinal’ champagne rather than spend time with him.

A triumph in every sense –the book is so beloved by mountaineers, there are now Mount Rumdoodles in New Zealand and Antarctica. Read it.