Ghost stories of a Norfolk parson Book

These short blasts of spiky black humour leave you breathless. The petty-bourgeois milieu often reminded me of VS Pritchett, updated to the 1980s, and the sly social observation of a cruder 20th-century version of Jane Austen, keenly people-watching from a corner of the room.

There are some killer first sentences here.
Mrs Brumfitt crossed the room sideways and at speed, making for the comparative obscurity of the corner chair. She was tree-limbed, with beetling unplucked eyebrows that gave her a false scowl. (how VS Pritchett is that?)
"Think of your cervix as the sleeve of a sweater," said the snake-hipped young midwife.

And other sentences that are pure genius. A character about to read from the Bible:
She sat up straight and formalised her face so that her mouth was stern and her cast-down eyelids gleamed like the backs of teaspoons.

Entertaning, and sometimes a bit depressing given her jaundiced view of male-female relationships. For maximum enjoyment, best taken in small doses.