Wicked Women, by Fay Weldon (Flamingo, £6.99 in UK)

Wicked is the word: here be, wicked folk of every gender and sexual orientation, and wicked humour, too. Fay Weldon has the knack of combining unpalatable truths with extremely tasty story telling; in the Weldonian war of the sexes, so sharp is the pain, so great the damage, that you always feel the final battle must be imminent - turn the page, though, and you'll find another couple, another skirmish, another set of casualties. But it's all wickedly entertaining.