FALLING UPSTAIRS

Scotsman Fletcher Fenn, running away from a mate from hell at the age of forty-eight, ends up in an eccentric English seaside hotel. Its oddities both delight him and encourage him to start a new life, which he begins by flying to New York. Appalled by the big city, he takes a bus across country, disembarking in New Mexico--where of course, another woman spots him. They are congenial, they are totally incompatible, they are mad about each other, they don&rsquo,t trust each other an inch. Finally she throws him out and he returns to Scotland, where he begins to woo her by letter. Against all odds he worms himself back into her affections, and she agrees to come over to Scotland for a visit--but the mate from hell climbs back into his life. As the Iron Duke said after the Battle of Waterloo, &ldquo,It was a damned close-run thing._,