The Bookshop
Penelope Fitzgerald
 The novel, set mainly in 1959, centres around Florence Green, a middle-aged widow, who decides to open a bookshop in the small fictional town of Hardborough, Suffolk. The location chosen is the Old House, an abandoned, damp house said to be infested by ghosts. With many sacrifices, the business starts and grows for about a year, after which sales slump. Florence Green has a contention with the influential Mrs Gamart, who wanted to set up an arts centre in the Old House. Mrs Gamart's nephew, a member of Parliament, manages to pass a bill that empowered local councils to buy any historical building that had been left uninhabited for five years. Eventually also the Old House is purchased and Florence Green evicted.