Beryl Bainbridge wrote seventeen novels, two travel books and five plays for stage and television, she was shortlisted for the Booker Prize five times, and won literary awards including the Whitbread Prize and the Author of the Year Award at the British Book Awards. She died in July 2010.

'At once funny and appalling . splendid occasions of high farce . rich in prophetic ironies' OBSERVER *Bainbridge has created a lucicrously funny farce, behind which lurks the destructive power of repressed fantasies & deeply felt resentments' S. TIMES *Bainbridge at her whimsical best, putting fantastic events firmly in a beautifully observed background.' D. TEL. *'A delightfully original conception, executed with great skill and humour' John Fowles