Tessa Hadley

I've really grown to like Hadley. It's traditional realist narrative, but then again, it's not.
The stories are all good, but some I connected with more than others. But the writing is top-notch.

More of what one expects from Hadley. Realistic writing with a knack for evocative details and touching upon universal emotions within the particular. Some stories worked better than others for me but most were pretty good.

Richly written and keenly-observed interplay between the emotions of the main characters; but too rich for me - a bit more superficiality would have leavened the mix; noted the use of em-dash, instead of inverted commas, to represent direct speech - very effective; some nice word-pictures, as well, e.g. pg. 74 (when talking about a writing-bureau in an old house) "The arrangements preserved the traces of the hands that had last closed the lid, twenty years ago." That's a lovely turn of phrase.