What does it mean to 'kiss and part'? This collection of previously unpublished short stories from a stellar list of contemporary women novelists is a literary celebration of the spirit of place. Each contributor shares one thing in common - they have all stayed at a small cottage in the village of Clifford Chambers near Stratford-upon-Avon, courtesy of a trust set up to provide women writers with ‘a room of one’s own’, as Virginia Woolf put it. Clifford Chambers was the home of the Jacobean poet Michael Drayton, who incorporated the phrase ‘Kiss and part’ into a sonnet. Each of the ten short stories in this collection takes this as its theme and the result is wonderfully eclectic mix of storytelling of the highest quality. All royalties go the Hosking Houses Trust to further encourage women’s writing. Contents List Preface ‘Kiss and Part’ by Michael Drayton Introduction by Margaret Drabble Buck Moon Marina Warner ‘A Merrie Meeting’ Salley Vickers The Incumbent Elizabeth Speller ‘Colossal Wreck’ Maria McCann The Visitation Maggie Gee And the River Flows On Joan Bakewell The Creature Jill Dawson The Turn Catherine Fox The Fabric of Things Jo Baker ‘Place of Dreams’ Lucy Durneen The Writers Afterword by Sarah Hosking Acknowledgements of Photographs