A wonderfully warm and witty novel about building new friendships - in unlikely places...When Bea's husband dies, she decides not to be a lonely widow, rattling around her big Oxford house. Instead, she chooses three tenants, each of whom needs her help, and in return offers Bea more affection than her own distant son. Over the years they become something of a strange 'family', until the day they must find a new housemate. Will needs a place to stay, and expects the usual grimy kitchen and sloppy students. Bea's beautiful house seems too good to be true -- until he meets the housemates. They're all at least twenty years older than him, and range from outrageously camp to irritatingly raucous. But somehow he finds he's taken the stunning spare room, and once he's moved in it's hard to escape. His sister, Harrie, falls in love with more than just the house when she comes to visit, and together they're soon caught up in Bea's final secret...