Publisher's Synopsis
"Stock writes with cool intelligence." THE TIMES "A major new talent." MAIL ON SUNDAY The irresistible new novel from the acclaimed author of A FOREIGN COUNTRY. Love, marriage and ambition at a pivotal moment when the man-made world of the 1950s is about to change... It's the start of the 1960s in a smart English suburb. Blonde, perfect Patsy is the ideal wife - attractive, ambitious, giving form to her husband's life, and style to their fabulous interior decor. Alan, too, has film-star good looks but it's his work that defines him. He's a scientist on the verge of a big breakthrough. His corporation is in the race to find the new wonder fibre that blends convenience with style for the modern executive, and Alan is jetted over to Head Office in Delaware. But for Patsy, back at home with three small children, this wasn't part of the grand plan. The Patsy of those days needs to be defined by a man. MAN-MADE FIBRE evokes with wit and delight the lure of modernism, the shock of the new - and the way two (not so ordinary) human beings respond to the way things were, and the way things were going.
