Everyone likes Olive Piper. A happy, open-hearted child growing up in the 1950s, her life is contented. When her passion for reading gets her into university she feels sure the world is waiting for her.

But then she makes a mistake the kind any one of us could make and faces an impossible choice.

'A shattering coming-of-age story'Daily Telegraph

Susan Hill has been a professional writer for over fifty years. Her books have won awards and prizes including the Whitbread, the John Llewellyn Rhys and the Somerset Maugham, and have been shortlisted for the Booker. She was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Honours. Her novels includeStrange Meeting,Im the King of the Castle,In the Springtime of the YearandA Kind Man. She has also published autobiographical works and collections of short stories as well as theSimon Serraillerseries of crime novels. The play of her ghost storyThe Woman in Blackhas been running in Londons West End since 1988. She has two adult daughters and lives in North Norfolk.

www.susanhill.org.uk