Spilt Milk, Black Coffee

Handsome Amir, somewhere in his twenties, somewhere in a Yorkshire town, is torn between duty and lust. While his tradition-bound family urges him to choose a wife from a parade of blank and bashful beauties, he remains a slave to boozy blonde goddess Jackie, his fellow-worker at the department store in town. Pushing forty, with bubblegum hair and a filthy laugh, Jackie is an unlikely muse. She is openly entertained by Amir's teetotalism and moral sincerity, but behind her whip-smart wit is a forgiving and optimistic heart. And, he sighs, she has a smile that lingers in the air like smoke. Meanwhile, at home, Amir must dodge his family's plans for him to join the family newsagency business, 'Fags n Fings', and tenderly care for his beloved, but increasingly demented, mother. Sensitive, sassy, exasperated, twelve-year-old Elle lurks in a black hoody and crops her hair to look as unlike her flamboyant mother as possible. She avoids the spiteful girls at her Catholic school, and leads a double life: raucous ballads of the seventies with wine-soaked Jackie; organic raisins and stately homes with perfect Claire, her father's faultless new wife. In a northern town rife with racial tension and tabloid outrage, "Spilt Milk, Black Coffee" is an hilarious, beguiling and unlikely love story. A romantic comedy of twenty-first century multi-cultural Britain, this is an irresistible novel from the prizewinning author of My Summer of Love. Praise for The Secret She Keeps: 'There's a timeless feel to this tale of loneliness, greed and beauty. Cross writes beautifully' Daily Mail 'Cross has an ability to imbue the everyday world with sensuality and strangeness ... it has the raw energy and flashes of brilliance that show Helen Cross to be a writer to watch' Sunday Telegraph Praise for My Summer of Love: 'Evocative, ferocious, even visceral ... A hand-grenade of a novel ... a book of quite exceptional power' Daily Mail 'A sharp, disturbing and highly original debut novel' Sunday Mirror