The theme [of The Fog Comes On Little Pig Feet] inevitably recalls Salinger; the disastrous first week at a posh boarding school of Rachel, fierce, funny and working-class, sent there by her sad and anxious parents to meet "nice girls from nice families"…. There isn't much of a plot; loyalty to a run-away delinquent friend, to her own scale of values, to those worried parents; these provide conflict enough.

The book is tougher and more sophisticated than any English equivalent I know, and certainly more literate: a friendship is sealed by a Carl Sandburg misquotation and the tone throughout is urbane. There are quite a few Americanisms (public school, Kotex, etc), which could well have been edited out. None of this, I hope, should prevent the book being enjoyed by literate young English readers. It's well written, it's funny, and it feels so right that it comes as...