This is the story of Blanche and Vicky. Following the death of their grandfather- in whose enormous Warwickshire house they live - their motherrelinquishes drink (to which she had taken in a big way) for the joys of frantichousework. Naturally the girls long to escape.

Blanche trains as a model at a dubious institution in London, and Vicky fleesto Holland and a purgatorial life as an au pair to a lot of dogs. But this is onlythe beginning and other adventures await them, including the poverty and cabbagesmells of one-room living, the charcoaled fingers of art school,drunkenness and cheap restaurants of Soho bohemia, and varying degrees ofexcitement with several husbands and lovers.

First published in 1967, A Touch of Mistletoe shows Barbara Comyns’ originalvoice at its best, mixing a characteristic simplicity with a quiet butcunning wit.

‘Everyone should read Barbara Comyns… There is no one to beat her when it comes to the uncanny.’ - Rachel Cooke, Guardian ‘Comyns’s heroines, and her novels, are plaintive, strange, and robust all at once.’ - TLS