Dimensions
162 x 240 x 28mm
When Grace and her brother Andrew inherit their grandmother's house, they surprise a few people by deciding to move in together. To them it seems the obvious thing to do: they've always got on well, the Hampstead house is large enough to split down the middle, and neither of them is likely to give a party to which the other isn't invited.There's just one thing they've not taken into account though. What if one of them wants to bring a lover into the house? When Andrew's partner James moves in, and immediately picks a fight about the treatment of gay men, the balance is altered - with almost fatal consequences.Grace tries to rise above the situation and concentrate on her thesis, which is on the subject of illegitimacy in English fiction. She spends her days pondering the fate of Hardy's Tess and the unfortunate Hetty Sorrell, characters who exemplify the lives of many women before our own more enlightened times. So she's more than happy to oblige a friend when he asks her to read an unpublished manuscript about a young unmarried mother in Devon between the wars. Except that as the situation in the house takes an unexpected turn, the book begins to seem remarkably, and uncomfortably, close to home.
