The birdcage - Marcia Willett

It was Felix who first called it The Birdcage - that strange and quirky household in Bristol with its close, loving women including the superbly flamboyant Angel. Angel's daughter Lizzie had loved living there as a child - and she had also loved Felix, the nearest she had to a father, whose loyalties had been strained to the limit by his deeply jealous wife Marina. Lizzie was always aware that Felix had another life at beautiful, mellow Michaelgarth, the family home on the edge of Exmoor where he tried to bring up his son Piers in a loving and peaceful environment. When Lizzie, many years later, comes at last to Michaelgarth and meets Piers for the first time, she finds a family which is in trouble - and which, miraculously, needs her to help them to heal.