Swimming with the Jellyfish pulls up the blinds in the sort of coastal town we've all driven through, holidayed in or lived in, revealing, with humour, originality, insight and, above all, love, lives as fascinating and eccentric as any in Dylan Thomas' Under Milkwood.

I'm walking through the tiny town of Pocket Head at midnight in my nightie, when everyone's asleep. The surf is rolling in and calling to us all, to all the people in this town I've known all my life but have never known. There is Rosie Lunt who can't stop making jam because in it she hides like fruit the dark secret of her life. There's my uncomplicated husband Davey and my wealthy lover with a private museum which includes his angry wife. And my dad who sleeps with two pillows shaped to fill the place Mum left. And there is the oysterman who might know the answers if only I get to ask him the right question ... tomorrow. The whole town snores. How do they stay wedged in their beds when it seems a careless nudge has tipped the world on to its side and everything of mine is tumbling out of cupboards?

An unforgettable cast of characters fills the seaside town of Pocket Head, but one is missing. Lal's mother has mysteriously disappeared, leaving Lal and her father devastated and forever wondering why. Perhaps in the jumble of the oysterman's ancient beach shed is the secret that holds the town together.