Three Kinds of Kissing

"Three Kinds of Kissing is the sort of book that makes you forget there is an author involved. It captures both the mood of a small-town community at a particular moment of change between the late 1960s and early 1970s, and the sulky, eager, sniping, adventurous minds of the girls who are its central characters, caught between childhood and adolescence, yearning for the security of home and family yet also desperate to escape. And it shows with unerring accuracy how, as adults, most of us never stop being the children we once were." - James Robertson; "Helen Lamb's writing has the quiet beauty of a summer's day, the kind where you realise the birds have stopped singing and the air is thick with tension. Psychologically insightful and emotionally sensitive, with moments of sharp humour that nip you playfully when you least expect it, this book is a delight. Three Kinds of Kissing has a missing girl, a house full of clocks, a granny who keeps her treacle scones in the strangest place - and so much more, all rumbling behind closed small-town doors. A coming-of-age classic." - Magi Gibson; "Three Kinds of Kissing is a modern classic about friendship, loss of innocence and the myriad ways families can self-implode." - Cynthia Rogerson