Shed Sheds", which argues that a "place of retreat" is a "male necessity" which provides men with solace, especially during their retirement. In contrast, in the novel "Cold Comfort Farm" by Stella Gibbons, Aunt Ada Doom saw "something nasty in the woodshed" and retreated to her bed for half a century. To woodshed, or 'shed, in jazz jargon, is "to shut oneself up, away from the world, and practice long and hard, as in 'going to the woodshed'." The word is recorded in English since 1481, as "shadde", possibly a variant of shade. The word shade comes from the Old English
Mavis Cheek Arnold Bennett, Stella Gibbons, William Boyd and Beryl Bainbridge as "literary heroes". For "A Good Read" on the BBC Radio 4 programme of that name broadcast on 7 June 2011 she chose "Micka" by Frances Kay. Her own novel, "Janice Gentle Gets Sexy", was chosen for A Good Read in its year of paperback publication, 1994. "The Sex Life of My Aunt" (2002), her tenth novel, draws liberally on her own background and childhood, including something of her family uneasy relationships. There are strong autobiographical elements also in her twelfth novel, "Yesterday's Houses" (2006), about the beginning of a woman's