In the 1950s, two little working-class girls, Pat and Rita, become best friends. 'Who Your Friends Are' is about Pat's friendship with Rita and her sisters as they grow into their very different lives. Rita is ambitious, becomes a model, marries a rock drummer. Pat follows Rita's career with interest but without envy. She herself follows a conventional route through marriage, children, a job in a caring profession, and always believing in the enduring quality of their friendship. Now Pat finds herself without a job, with her children all grown up and time on her hands. Her past history with Rita and her sisters is due for a reassessment - what will she make of it? It is a story about friendship, loyalty and the everyday life (often mundane, sometimes exciting, at times tacky) of ordinary people who have grown up after World War ll. Susan's writing brings to life the era of post-war change, with its thrills and disappointments. Pat's mid-life reflections point up sharply the poignancy of looking back, alongside the very different experiences of her present day world and its troubles. Susan Day's style is economical and understated, but the book gives us a vivid insight into the needs and dramas of everyday life, and the emotions and tensions in Pat and Rita's families. The characters are rounded and believable, and the lively and eventful story carries the reader along to the end.

Brenda Bannister, author of 'The Tissue Veil' A deceptively simple story that makes you think about relationships, self-deceit and how we fail to spot the obvious. Robin Kent, author of 'Aunt Agony Advises' A wonderful book about rites of passage - from the 1950s to the present day. Sometimes raw; often poignant; with deft dialogue and a feel for the realities of teenage friendship and subsequent family life and its unexpected twists and turns. Susan Day captures the fault lines which run through our long term relationships: the seemingly inseparable bond between school girls that fractures and breaks over time. The realities of family Christmases which are fraught with dangers and rocks which sink the best of intentions. The author uses the clever device of dipping in and out of her writers' group to both involve and distance herself and the reader from her main characters. Like many of the best authors she makes the best of the mundane: her characters are not heroic or engaged in saving the world; but they are engaging; honest and they make one care about their small triumphs and disasters. This is a thoughtful and thought provoking book that captures the live and times of women growing up in the 1960s and trying to make something of their lives while earning a living and raising a family.