Promotional Information

/ Includes PS Section Hilary Mantel's superb story of suburban mayhem and revenge is sharp, merciless and unerringly hilarious. / One of our finest literary novelists. / A smart new Harper Perennial edition of a long-out-of-print Hilary Mantel classic. / Will appeal to all fans of her more recent novels and memoirs. / Includes a fascinating PS section with an author profile and exclusive essay on the novel.

About the Author

Hilary Mantel was born in Derbyshire. She was educated at a convent and later studied law. After ten years abroad in Africa and the Middle East, she returned to Britain in 1985 to make a career as a writer.

Reviews

'Strange!rather mad!extremely funny!she reminded me of the early Muriel Spark' Auberon Waugh 'Abrasive and amusing!crisp and intelligent' Barbara Trapido 'What a terrific book' Fay Weldon

This remarkable first novel takes us into a slatternly house, filled with demons and ghosts, where the clairvoyant Evelyn Axon and Muriel, her pregnant half-wit daughter, cower out of sight of society. Moving seamlessly to a cottage in another part of London, it introduces Colin Sidney, father of three stupefyingly unappealing children, tries to escape the disappointments of marriage via a hole-in-corner affair with Isabel Field, a young social worker assigned to surpervise Muriel. It turns out that Colin grew up in a house around the corner from the Axons, that his mother tried to speak to her dead husband through Mrs. Axon, and that his sister was sexually abused by the late Mr. Axon, who, once Muriel was born, refused to risk further congress with his wife. All these soiled reminders of times past lingernasty little spirits who upset the furniture, steal from the larder, even leave hortatory notes. Who fathered Muriel's baby? Her mother cannot guess, but a changeling it must be, and, like all changelings, it must be cast away. When Mrs. Axon is similarly cast away, Colin Sidney, in defiance of the portents, moves his family into her haunted house, leaving the thoroughly involved reader to imagine what lies in wait. (March)