Ellen Ramsden is a young woman growing up in humble circumstances in the Medway Towns in Kent, an historic area of military and naval importance on the river Medway thirty miles from London and an equally short distance across the English Channel to France. Ellen's father, a seaman has been lost at sea, since when Ellen has been the main provider for her mother and her brother Ben. Ellen is happily employed in a large drapers shop until she makes the mistake of antagonising an important customer, which results in her losing her job. She is fortunate, however, in finding work in a local...

Mostly About Men is mostly about men in relationship to women; the betrayed husband, the selfish lover, the runaway son. There is the man who loves pleasure above love and finds nothing else. There is the sad man, too late to repair his life and there is the futuristic man whose body is worth more dead than alive. These stories are, after all, mostly abut men but what emerges from them is that no man can really manage his life without a good woman

It's a bad day for David Richmond and his team at the hotel, Tony the barman, porter Sean, barmaid Tanya and ditzy waitress Lucy.