A novel of love war and death brilliantly entertaining and far ahead of its time Guardian She is my husbands mistress and here am I taking her out to dinnerSophia Willoughby of Blandamer House upstanding Victorian matriarch has packed her errant husband off to Paris with his mistress Minna But when tragedy throws her life off balance Sophia goes to seek him out and instead finds herself intensely attracted to the charismatic bohemian Minna who leads her on a wild chaotic adventure through a city in the throes of revolutionOne of the great underread British novelists of the twentieth century This is my favourite of her novels Sarah WatersEvery page contains something brilliant arresting or amusing and one comes away from it staggered Claire Harman
