Joyful. Keyes' clever way with words and extraordinary wit. People stared at me as I laughed to myself' C.L. Taylor Angels centres on Maggie, the oldest and ostensibly most stable Walsh sister. Labelled in the family as the goody-goody, "plain yoghurt at room temperature", she is on the run from a broken marriage. "I've always lived a fairly blameless life," she says. "Up until the day I left my husband and then ran away to Hollywood, I'd never put a foot wrong. Not that many people knew about, anyway." Great!’ I exclaimed. Then I remembered myself; they were his friends. ‘Well, not great for him and his toe, but I’ve had a tough day and -‘ In addition to her fifteen novels, Marian has also written two collections of journalism, upon which the recent hit BBC Radio 4 show Between Ourselves is based.

He lifted out my box of go-on-you-divil truffles and exclaimed, ‘Hey, look!’ His eyes were a-sparkle. ‘Those sweets again. Are they following us?’ I was to remember that We’re in big trouble here when it transpired that we actually were. On the evening in question we were meant to be going out for dinner with Elaine and Liam, friends of Garv’s. And who knows, if Liam’s new flat screen television hadn’t fallen off the wall and on to his foot, breaking his big toe in the process, so that I’d gone out instead of going home, maybe Garv and I would never have split up. Will make you laugh and make you cry, but will also reveal the truth of who you really are' Louise O'NeillMost of Garv’s mates were lovely, but Liam was a glaring exception: the problem was that Garv was one of those types who went around seeing the good in people – most people, anyway. This is a great quality in theory, and I’d no objection to him seeing the good in people I liked myself, but it was a bit of a pain when he persisted with the ones I didn’t. Himself and Liam had been friends since junior school, in the days when Liam had been a lot nicer, and, even though Garv had tried very hard for my sake, he’d been unable to shake his residual affection for him. Liam’s broken his toe,’ Garv said. ‘His new flatscreen telly fell on it: (Liam and Elaine had every consumer durable known to man -and I stress man, not woman. Give me a mobile phone and a hair-curler and I’m happy. But Garv, being a man, yearned after digital this and Bang & Olufsen that.) ‘So tonight’s off: All across the USA, people are showing up dead. The deaths don't appear to be connected in any way until one particular death occurs and gets the Secretary of Defense's attention. He arranges for a task force to investigate. So what’s the latest?’ Donna had a messy, high-concept love life and, as one of her best friends, it was my duty to provide advice. But she often consulted Garv to get what she called ‘the male perspective’, and he’d been so helpful that she’d rechristened him Doctor Love.

No one ever expected predictable Maggie to do something so unpredictable. And in LA, Maggie can be whoever she wants to be. So when she makes a break for Hollywood with her best friend, Emily, her family and friends don't know what to think. Our health is our wealth; we’d say, pleased as punch, because it seemed that buying raw foodstuffs was an effective thing to do in itself. It was only when it became clear that the food had to be eaten that the trouble would begin. Marian Keyes is a brilliant writer. No one is better at making terrifically funny jokes while telling such important, perceptive and agonizing stories of the heart. She is a genius' Sali Hughes In the City of Angels, Maggie gets to do things she's never done before: mixing with film stars, pitching scripts, partying non-stop. But is this really a once-in-a-lifetime journey of self-discovery, or is she simply running away from married life?Of course I knew. Every time I went into town with Garv we had to call into the electrical department in Brown Thomas and stand before said telly, admiring it in all its twelve thousand pounds’ worth of glory. Though Garv was well paid, he didn’t earn anything like Liam’s telephone-number wedge. And what with our high mortgage, the cost of running two cars, Garv’s addiction to CDs and my addiction to face creams and hand­ bags, funds just didn’t run to flatscreen tellies. It literally made me cold. All the little hairs on my skin lifted and a chill settled somewhere between my ribs. Terrified, I tried to cheer myself up by having a little fret about the amount of work I’d have to do the following day, but no dice. So then I reminded myself that my parents were getting older and that I’d be the one who’d end up having to take care of them, and tried to scare myself with that instead. Garv was already home and we greeted each other a little warily. We hadn’t expected that this evening would be just the two of us; we’d been kind of depending on Liam and Elaine to dilute the funny atmosphere between us. I'd always lived a fairly blameless life . . . up until the day I left my husband and ran away to Hollywood . . .' from the publisher's description

I’d always lived a fairly blameless life … up until the day I left my husband and ran away to Hollywood…’ These themes are especially prominent in the novels she has written about the Walsh sisters from Dublin: Watermelon, about Claire Walsh's desertion by her husband on the day she gives birth to their daughter; and her best book, the powerful, painful Rachel's Holiday, about Rachel Walsh's drug overdose and stint at the Cloisters, an Irish rehab centre.Robbie wants her to stop shaving under her arms. Says he thinks it’s sexy, but she’s afraid she’ll look like a gorilla.’ Which is precisely what I bought for that evening’s meal. I mounted the pavement, ran into the Spar and flung a couple of pizzas and some breakfast cereals into a basket. And then Fate intervened.