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A story about coming of age in 1970s Oxford. Politics and the Pill. Pot and poetry. Glamrock and groupies. The way we were. Love isn’t always the answer.
Have you ever fallen for the wrong man?
Sally does. Handsome, clever Max Bellinger brings a whiff of sophistication into the shabby canalside house they share in that final year at Oxford. And Sally, so steeped in the Romantics that she confuses literature with real life, is content to be his adoring handmaiden.
That blind devotion shapes Sally’s life for many years. She writes lyrics for Max’s wayward rock star brother and stays involved with his family. But the relationship is based on secrets and lies, and when Sally finally wakes up to reality, those deceptions come home to roost . . .
Libby Purves perfectly capture what it means to be a woman in the last third of the twentieth century.
Have you ever fallen for the wrong man?
Sally does. Handsome, clever Max Bellinger brings a whiff of sophistication into the shabby canalside house they share in that final year at Oxford. And Sally, so steeped in the Romantics that she confuses literature with real life, is content to be his adoring handmaiden.
That blind devotion shapes Sally’s life for many years. She writes lyrics for Max’s wayward rock star brother and stays involved with his family. But the relationship is based on secrets and lies, and when Sally finally wakes up to reality, those deceptions come home to roost . . .
Libby Purves perfectly capture what it means to be a woman in the last third of the twentieth century.
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Reviews
'Purves is good on modern morality, its subtle seductions and its potential to disrupt'
'A bouncy and enlightening read'
'The story is cleverly and compellingly told, full of perceptive insights and reflections, the Seventies period details are squirmingly familiar, the influence of Eng. Lit on a developing emotional consciousness is sensitively woven in, the parallel lives of students then and now are neatly drawn'
'Purves is a fine writer and the slow pace at the start of the novel proves well pitched to heighten the rising tension of the story'