Book description
The freshest and most poignant observer of human foibles and heroic
hearts since Anita Brookner, Mary Wesley and Alice Thomas Ellis.
When Lydia sees Simon late at night driving down Westbourne Grove her
suspicions are aroused. Simon, a TV film director, lives in Hammersmith
with his wife Flora and their three children, what need has he for the
dubious attractions of Bayswater? The attraction is Gillian, an
accountant, whom Simon met at a dinner party while Flora and the
children were away in la douce France. Flora struggles with her re-found
Christian faith, though Anglican now rather than Roman Catholic, as
Simon falls into a hopelessly passionate and sexual affair that brings
its own burden and guilt.
The smart world of middle-class West London is depicted with savage wit
and a needle-sharp intelligence that will remind readers of the novels
of Muriel Spark. 'A triumph of the minimalist, it appraises love, both
sacred and profane, desire, pain and the disappointments of this earth
with a laser eye.'
The Times
'Graceful and charming… If there are tears in the eyes, they will be
tears of pure pleasure at the resolution and consummate workmanship of a
small masterpiece.'
Shena Mackay, Independent (on The Woman in Black) Madeleine St John
was born in Sydney and graduated from the University there in 1963. She
has spent most of the intervening years living in London. This is the
author's second novel, her first being Women in Black.
