Alan Bennett recently attributed the sexual content of this book to the urge to "outflank" his fans in case of being considered overly "cosy". Being branded a national treasure must be a cumbersome cross to bear, but Bennett doesn't exactly defy expectations here. The central characters in these comedies of ill manners are two of Bennett's stock-in-trade older ladies: they take tea and attempt to keep up appearances in the emotional wastes of a suburbia where curtains twitch and desires go, for the most part, unfulfilled.

In the first story, "The Greening of Mrs Donaldson", the eponymous heroine gains a new lease of life on the death of her very average husband. Defying her "joyless" daughter Gwen, Mrs Donaldson starts mounting minor insurrections against respectability  the first of which is participating in medical training scenarios at her local hospital. She is glad of the extra money and the chance not to be herself, and discovers an aptitude for feigning duodenal ulcers. But her new routine is upset when she takes in a couple of student lodgers who have some creative ideas about ways to pay the rent: Mrs Donaldson finds she can engage in role-playing without leaving the house, and likes it.

"The Shielding of Mrs Forbes", the second story, plays out like some kind of bleak Carry On Little England. Prim Forbes is displeased that her banker son Graham marries beneath him; he is shallow and vain and, although gay, finds sex with his new wife surprisingly liberating. When a blackmailing rent boy threatens to expose his double life, Graham turns to the police, only to discover his blackmailer is in fact the gay liaison officer. Everyone hops in and out of everyone else's bed, and secrets turn out not to be. As in the previous story, there is a lack of real communication between characters, and sex is only ever a tool to be used in the most perfunctory way.

Unsurprisingly, the tone of the comedy is pitch-perfect Bennettian and the writing is incredibly sharp, but the antiquated register and backdrop jar at times. The smut itself is unlikely to shock  the disturbing element to these stories is reminiscent of Auden's "Miss Gee", with a vision every bit as dark and buttoned-up.