Love out of season - Ray Connolly

'Romance - what is it? A sudden flow of endorphins to the brain? A trick by nature to persuade us to perpetuate our genes? Not noticing one another's adolescent pimples? Or sex through rose tinted condoms?'

These are the sort of questions puzzling Amy Miller, a thirtyish writer of romantic fiction, when she discovers she is being doorstepped by the tabloid Press over her secret affair with a famously married lover. As he panics she quickly goes into hiding.

Choosing a remote hotel on the North Devon coast, she meets Tim, a music teacher and composer, who, recuperating after being injured at school, is also struggling to finish a piece of music his absent girl friend has inspired. But what a piece! 'I'm sure Beethoven had his off-days,' Amy sympathises. 'Probably,' says Tim. 'But he was deaf. He didn't have to listen to what he was playing.'

Gradually, as they wander the empty resort and beaches, the two become friends, easily able to see the other's problems, but with no idea of how to solve their own.

Meanwhile the hotel is preparing for a St Valentine's ball, and, as we follow Amy and Tim, we unpeel the fears and romantic yearnings of some of the guests and staff. These include Shona, the seemingly confident college placement and Darrell, the gauche local boy porter; Michael and Eleanor, the middle-aged ex-priest and ex-nun who have left their orders to marry, and who are now on their honeymoon; and Jane, the manager who is desperate, and not only in making a success of her first hotel.

And then on the eve of St Valentine's Day a tabloid journalist discovers the runaway author - while enjoying a spot of weekend adultery himself...

LOVE OUT OF SEASON is a warm hearted, romantic comedy about love in every generation - a novel which is aimed at all ages.