An absorbing novel of politics, family fractures and scandal in late 70s Britain.

Melvyn Bragg is quite simply one of the best writers we have Sunday Telegraph A gripping novel...there is a demonic streak in Bragg's imagination, something excitingly macabre Listener Very good, very pleasurable and very authentic...an extremely well-timed book Anthony Howard There are certain writers - Lawrence, Hardy, Bennett - whose novels seem to grow from the very soil that nurtured them. Melvyn Bragg is one of them: his characters' roots are firmly in Cumbria...The writing and characterisation are powerful Daily Telegraph

Melvyn Bragg is a writer and broadcaster. His novels include The Hired Man, for which he won the Time/Life Silver Pen Award, Without a City Wall, winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, The Soldier's Return, winner of the WHSmith Literary Award, A Son of War and Crossing the Lines, both of which were longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, A Place in England, which was longlisted for the Lost Man Booker Prize, and most recently Grace and Mary. He has also written several works of non-fiction, including The Book of Books about the King James Bible. He lives in London and Cumbria.