New Releases by Jane Gardam

Set in South London, told entirely in the form of letters, this is an exploration of the imagination - the real world and fantasy - of a woman under terrible stress. The book was awarded the 1991 Whitbread Novel of the Year award.

With her customary accuracy, Jane Gardam reveals the extraordinariness of ordinary people as she deals with the pangs of love- fulfilled or hopeless, sexual or spiritual, tortured or hilarious- in these eleven stories. Paraded here are ladies with a ''thing'' about vicars, strange events happening in ornate downstairs lavatories (and in ornate upstairs ones), and the English abroad, desperate and dotty. The glum and impossible Edna haunts the supermarket- and dispenses an unlikely kiss of life. The younger sister of Hans Christian Andersen''s Little Mermaid declares her sibling ''very silly'' and turns her story on its tail, an old maid forms a curious liason with a tramp, and small moments of temptation fill hotel rooms as histories glance briefly off each other.

When the huge white horse cut out of the hillside turf is threatened by a government plan to plant him over with Christmas trees, the village bands together to save him.

Alice falls down a rabbit hole, changes size unexpectedly, and attends a tea party given by a March Hare. Along the way, she meets such unforgettable characters as the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, the Mock Turtle, the autocratic Red Queen, and other fanciful folk. 42 original illustrations by John Tenniel.

A young girl aspiring to be a writer recounts her experiences growing up in England during World War II.