Mary Pickles moves from London to Brighton, a seaside town; she's aged eight. By 1963 she and her best friend Dottie are in work, at the cheap general store Woolworths. THE GIRLS FROM SEE SAW LANE are growing up fast. Dottie Perks is an ordinary girl, aiming no higher than to be a plumber's wife, but Mary has dreams of Paris, study, art and sophisticated boyfriends. The Beatles are their favourite band, but two local lads catch their eyes.

This enjoyable book is filled with atmosphere; with chats about the relative merits of work in a shop or the sack factory, with tourists on the pier buying fish and chips, candyfloss and Brighton rock, with vinyl singles and penny sweets. Reading is like stepping back in time. A time when the war years were over, young people looked forward to travel and the world had become exciting. On the negative side, business managers are male, and beauty contests seem to be a girl's only way to fame. The loves and laughs of the inseparable pals guide us through the changing seasons. Mary is short but pretty; Dottie is plump and has asthma. They stick together through family weddings and the excitement of night clubs. But life being what it is, a moment will come when one of them will break the friendship.

The 1960s was perhaps when British teenagers were invented; young people with mobility and money, who were not obliged to go to war or marry early. Jobs had options outside factories while entertainment, fashion and reading materials targeted this new market. Sandy Taylor tells us that Brighton in the 1960s was a wonderful place for her, and she wanted to write a novel all about friendship set in this place and time of her youth. To enter her world is to hear the names of film stars, US presidents, singers and holiday camps, all shiny and new. Experience this world for yourself and hold your breath, as I did, when the fragile friendship of THE GIRLS FROM SEE SAW LANE has to weather a storm. A second book, COUNTING CHIMNEYS, is on the way.