Loughborough Junction is a bit of London that would like to imagine itself as the edge of somewhere nicer, but Stella Duffy relishes its tatty ordinariness and makes it satisfyingly mesmerising for the reader. Like Hanif Kureishi's laundrette, The Room of Lost Things has an odd couple at its heart: Robert Sutton, 50-odd years a dry cleaner, and his successor, Akeel. Akeel's introduction to the "room of lost things" where Robert files the forgotten best man's speeches and love letters, forces the old man to come clean about his past, while the lives of his customers are as jumbled as a sack of dirty washing. Stella Duffy is the author of twelve novels, over thirty stories, and eight plays. The Room of Lost Things and State of Happiness were both longlisted for the Orange Prize, The Room of Lost Things won Stonewall Writer of the Year 2008. Her twelfth novel, Theodora, will be published by Virago in June 2010.