The Palm House focuses on the friendship between Laura Miller (the narrator) and Edmund Putnam (known mainly as ‘Putnam’) two characters working in the London media landscape, set close to the present day. Over the course of a long weekend, they meet several times for drinks and crisps, and discuss the state of their lives, and share stories from their past. Putnam is coming to the terms with the death of his father and dealing with the arrival of a terrible new boss at Sequence, the cultural publication he has spent decades working for, and Laura is still somewhat in the shadow of her performative and over-the-top mother, and is somewhat listless in her current life and looking for ways to improve her circumstance.

Shuggie Bain is a deeply personal story, clearly heavily influenced by Stuart’s own childhood, of a caring but “different” child, Hugh “Shuggie” Bain growing up in 1980s Glasgow with his alcoholic mother, Agnes. The book begins with the pair (and Shuggie’s two siblings Leek and Catherine) living with Agnes’ parents and Shuggie’s father “Shug” in Glasgow tenements. Shug moves the family to the isolated mining “scheme” accommodation of Pithill, before abandoning them to move in with another woman. Agnes is glamorous but unfulfilled, taking refuge in alcohol which worsens as her parents die and her daughter marries young and moves to South Africa.