The Cost of Living

Publisher: Penguin Random House
Publish date: 12 March 2026
Pages: 224
Binding: Paperback
Language: English

Subjects: Fiction, Literary, Women, LGBTQ+, City Life

Rediscover the brilliance of The Cost of Living in the Mermaid Collection - classic books by popular pioneering female authors republished to delight new generations of readers.

A witty and characterful novel about the aftermath of a party thrown by singletons Marianne, a freelance typist in her mid-thirties and twenty-six year old Alexandra, a freelance portrait painter, who live in the same apartment building and have decided it's time to meet some men . . .

With a foreword by Jane Fallon

'You're always so cynical. It doesn't do. It makes men feel inferior.'
'Quite a few of them are . . .'

Idealistic Alexandra is throwing a party to meet a more glamorous crowd. Marianne, more sardonic, worries it'll be the usual sort.

The party is in Alexandra's attic flat. Marianne will contribute a few bottles of red optimistically labelled Bordeaux. Can it be judged a success? There's Donald the bus conductor with high-brow dreams, nervous bespectacled Bernhardt and Marius the ghostwriter. Not to mention a brace of Peters. It's left to sexy, young Pisa and riotous, middle-aged Mummy (neither invited) to steal the show.

Yet, after the party both Marianne and Alexandra find themselves caught in unexpected - sometimes far from romantic - relationships. Meeting people, it turns out, has the most peculiar consequences.

Is that really the cost of living?

Praise for Kathleen Farrell:
'Genuine wit, an acute feminine intelligence and a natural distinction of style' Spectator

'A distinctive voice, and she provided her readers with subtle pleasures' Guardian