Madame Doubtfire

by Anne Fine

Published 26 March 1987
Lydia, Christopher and Natalie are used to domestic turmoil. Their parents' divorce has not made family life any easier in either home. The children bounce to and from their volatile mother, Miranda, and their out-of-work actor father, Daniel. Then Miranda advertises for a cleaning lady who will look mind the children after work - and Daniel gets the job, disguised as Madame Doubtfire. This bittersweet, touching and extremely funny book inspired the highly successful film Mrs Doubtfire, starring Robin Williams.

Round Behind the Ice-house

by Anne Fine

Published 22 October 1981
Cass has always been there for Tom, her twin - racing off to laugh with him in the old, abandoned ice house or planning how to foil Jamieson, the farm's creepy pest-killer. But now Cass is a teenager, she is changing - she wants her privacy and feels suffocated by their life on the farm. Bewildered, Tom struggles to regain their former closeness, but only succeeds in alienating both Cass and Jamieson's daughter Lisa. Until the night of the storm . . .