People in the park - Marjorie Leet Ford

If we thought we could get away with it, this would be called 'Tails of the City'-It's a witty, warm, wonderfully eccentric novel which like Maupin's throws an irresistible concoction of San Francisco characters and life together, this time in a park and with their dogs. Inevitably the owners grow like their dogs, if they aren't already; they (that's the owners) pour out their souls to strangers in the park; they fall in love, requited and unrequited; they write poetry; they grow old, they worry, have affairs, learn French, cooking, horticulture - life, with its ups and downs like the San Francisco streets, goes on- for Tobin, the ex-hippie poet gardener, who holds it all together; and for skinny Hillary Birdwood with her thick specs and wild silver retriever Tess; for the saturnine and sexy psychiatrist and his unlikely corgi; for Jake and his Aghan trio; for Anna Leone and Dr Hawthorne with Posy the bichon fries and Romeo the rottweiler; and Nigel, Chantal and Roger the standard poodle, and a whole host of others and their pooches - all set against the irresistible backdrop of one of the most enticing and evocative cities in the world.