Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man (Flagg Fannie); Vintage books, 1999

From the author of the bestselling Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafй comes this sassy, coming of age story, bound to make you laugh and cry in turn.

Fannie Flagg takes us on a journey to a South that only Southerners know, to a time when 'Blue Velvet' was played at the Senior Prom, and into the life of Daisy Fay Harper, a sassy, truth-telling heroine who just can't stay out of trouble. What's more she tells us everything - from what (or who) made her Daddy and Momma split up to what is really stashed in the freezer of the family's malt shop.

Daisy Fay is coming of age in the Gulf Coast's Shell Beach, which is The End of the Road of the South, but a dandy place to meet the locals like hard-drinking Jimmy Snow, former debutante Mrs Dot and Daisy's own Daddy. They're all part of the fun that takes us down home, back to the '50s, and into the best story ever written east of Texas...