This is a study of the novels by and for middle-class women that dominated the publishing market in the first half of the twentieth century. Works by Agatha Christie, Nancy Mitford, Stella Gibbons and many others are considered alongside cultural products such as cookery books, child-care manuals and women's magazines. A fascinating study of literary culture, which offers many intriguing tasters of the novels themselves. The bizarre characters and scenarios, and the conscious ironies of some of these "good bad books" leave one curious to read more.