This is driving me mad, two young adult novels so I probably read them early to mid 90s. I only have really vague descriptions though!
First one- a young boy befriends an elderly woman, and she teaches him about life kind of story. She introduces him to classical music and I remember him saying you can't dance to it and her line is 'why must one have to?' That's all I can remember!
Second book about a girl who breaks up from school after doing her exams, she lives with her single mother in some kind of co-op and the mum regularly has interesting characters dropping in. The mum also talks about how she was at Greenham Common. There is a part where her classmate destroys his books after they leave school and she gets really angry about books being ruined. I also think maybe she gets a job in a posh clothes shop?
Sorry I know it's not much to go on, any ideas would be appreciated.