Author(s): Elizabeth Jolley

Fiction

An ageing but handsome university professor, Edwin Page, is married to Cecilia, a much younger woman who is an obstetrician and gynaecologist. When the childless Cecilia goes away for a year's study leave, Edwin finds himself more and more in the company of Leila and her mother who live next door. Leila's mother is a very good cook, and Leila, it turns out, is perfectly willing to be a surrogate mother...The Sugar Mother explores the way the many little impacts of distance, separation and change can gather force and move people in unexpected directions.