Lace is a classic women’s novel. Written by Shirley Conran in 1982 it was made into a highly successful mini-series. The numbers don’t lie – over two million copies have been sold in the UK alone. It’s an intriguing tale of love, hate, deceit, and shame; you really won’t be able to put it down.

The plot centres around five main characters. Famous film star Lili is trying to trace her birth mother and knows that a mysterious benefactor sent money to her adoptive parents to pay for her upkeep – her mission is to find out who that was. The story jumps back to 1960, where we meet four schoolfriends, Pagan, Kate, Judy and Maxine. The girls are close and we follow them as they progress through school and blossom into beautiful young ladies. Each girl begins an illicit romance and eventually, one of the girls becomes pregnant. The baby is named Elizabeth Lace and put up for adoption – the mothers name listed as ‘Lucinda Lace’ – but who is the mysterious Lucinda Lace?

As the lives of the four girls’ progresses, each one of them maintaining a fabulously successful career, they receive news that the baby has died. The years of lies, resentment and shame cause them to fight and they each go their separate ways. Lili in the meantime is determined to find her mother, the woman who abandoned her and left her to suffer – she will stop at nothing until she uncovers the truth.

Eventually, the four women are summoned to New York, where Lili asks “Which one of you bitches is my mother?” It’s a spellbinding end to the novel, which will leave you gagging for more. Luckily Conran agreed and Lace 2 followed with the explosive revelation of the true identity of Lili’s parents.

For the perfect holiday novel, you can’t go wrong.