I found The Weather in the Streets even better than Invitation to the Waltz. The subject matter is more powerful and complex, and Lehmann more assured in handling it. Olivia's inner monologues are brilliantly done, and Lehmann even slips into the first person for one section of the book, though the change is so unobtrusive that I almost didn't notice it. What every local authority will have done is to make arrangements to find extra accommodation that they can bring people into in these situations. These might be hotels, B&Bs or hostels run by homelessness charities or it might be church or community spaces that are made available for those purposes. Perhaps with it being out of season, it might include places like holiday parks.

There is little to be found of that excitable creature, Olivia Curtis, who attended her first ball ten years ago and captured most of the readers' hearts in this new novel. The scene between Olivia and Rollo’s mother, as another example, expresses so much, not least through what is not said. It proves decisive.With brilliant dialogue and intense passages of elation and despair, The Weather in the Streets takes you on the rollercoaster of their relationship’ ESTHER FREUD, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Comparativamente hablando, este libro es mejor que el anterior. Lehmann, a través de su protagonista (ocasional uso de la primera persona), se ha deshecho de los restos de inocencia que mantenía en “Invitación al baile” aunque no consigue desproveerla de cierta ingenuidad. Olivia adulta observa un mundo hipócrita y bastante cínico, cruel, además de claramente machista. Pero Olivia, el personaje, no juzga ese mundo, se juzga a sí misma, se culpa, y se disculpa casi constantemente, aceptando a los demás, sin culparlos… sobre todo a él, a quien le perdona todo. It was then the time began when there wasn't any time. The journey was in the dark, going on without end or beginning, without landmarks, bearings lost: asleep? ... waking? ' An affair with a married man: the secrecy, the acceptance of half-a-life, the cutting off from one's friends - how can you settle for that?They made it a joke, and laughed … All the same, it was surprising he hadn’t produced an heir. Couldn’t, wouldn’t Nicola? … or what? The Weather in the Streets starts off well. Olivia, unhappily married and separated from her husband, is called home because her father is ill. On the train she meets Rollo, the married son of local landowners. Her and Rollo share a few childhood memories but have drifted apart as adults. The narrative voice switches from third to first person and we will see everything that happens in the novel from Olivia’s perspective. The average age of someone who dies while homeless is in their 40s, rather than their 70s. You might see somebody sleeping on the streets who looks quite young, but is actually very fragile and vulnerable.” Homeless people are more likely to already suffer from poor health (Photo: Paul Bradbury, Getty Images)