In A Perfect Explanation (Salt, £12.99; Tablet price £11.69), Eleanor Anstruther fictionalises her own family history with exceptional skill. In 1924, her aristocratic grandmother, Enid Campbell, left her husband and small children for two years. When she returns, she brings chaos and misunderstanding. But Anstruther finds the disturbed woman beneath the “brute”, and creates a wonderful portrait of a mother who gave up her children because, in an era when post-natal depression wasn’t understood, she felt too evil to hold on to them.