SECOND FIDDLE <i> by Mary Wesley (Penguin: $7.95) </i>

A droll comedy of manners, set in a provincial English village. Laura Thornby, the daughter of a determinedly eccentric (and possibly incestuous) family, takes up Claud Bannister, an unprepossessing man 20-odd years her junior, the way a more normal woman might take up embroidery or raising African violets. With smug aplomb, she bullies him into declaring his independence from his mother and pursuing his goal of becoming a writer. Laura enjoys meddling in Claud’s life so much, it never occurs to her he might have talent. She discovers his ability and the hollowness of her much vaunted independence in a comeuppance that is richly deserved and tartly amusing.