'Elizabeth Taylor is finally being recognised as an important British author: an author of great subtlety, great compassion and great depth.' - Sarah Waters
'I defy anyone to find one dud sentence in Taylor's entire oeuvre' - Neel Mukherjee
'Jane Austen, Elizabeth Taylor, Barbara Pym, Elizabeth Bowen - soul sisters all' - Anne Tyler
WHen Cassandra Dashwood's father dies, she takes the position of governess to Sophy, a precocious, imaginative child. Her employer, Marion Vanbrugh, shares rambling Cropthorne Manor with his cousins, Tom and Margaret, Aunty Tinty and Nanny, the venomous housekeeper. Cassandra is disconcerted by the hostile atmosphere - with the exception of Sophy, everyone inhabits their separate grief; Marion hides himself away with his books, haunted by the memory of his wife, while Tom is hell-bent on drinking himself to destruction.
