''Comyns''s world is weird and wonderful . . . a neglected genius'' LUCY SCHOLES, OBSERVER''A curious hybrid: a mixture of domestic disaster, social commentary, comedy, and romance . . . '' KATHERINE A. POWERS, BARNES & NOBLE REVIEW ''I defy anyone to read the opening pages and not to be drawn in, as I was . . . Quite simply, Comyns writes like no one else'' MAGGIE O''FARRELL Pretty, unworldly Sophia is twenty-one years old and hastily married to a young painter called Charles. An artist''s model with an eccentric collection of pets, she is ill-equipped to cope with the bohemian London of the 1930s where poverty, babies (however much loved) and husband conspire to torment her. Hoping to add some spice to her life, Sophia takes up with Peregrine, a dismal, ageing critic and comes to regret her marriage and her affair. But in this case virtue is more than its own reward, for repentance brings an abrupt end to the cycle of unsold pictures, unpaid bills and unwashed dishes . . .

''Tragic, comic and completely bonkers all in one, I''d go as far as to call her something of a neglected genius'' LUCY SCHOLES, GUARDIAN ''It is hard not to believe that Barbara Comyns''s own adventures are entangled in her fiction'' JANE GARDAM, SPECTATOR''All of her books read as if she wrote them effortlessly'' URSULA HOLDEN On the banks of the River Avon, five sisters are born. The seasons come and go, the girls take their lessons under the ash tree and there is always the sound of water swirling through the weir. Then, unexpectedly, an air of decay descends upon the house: ivy grows unchecked over the windows, angry shouts split the summer air, the milk sours in the larder and their father takes out his gun. Tragedy strikes the family, and before long the furniture is being auctioned off and the sisters dispersed among relatives. In her daring first novel, originally published in 1947, Barbara Comyns'' unique young heroine relates the vivid, funny and bittersweet story of a childhood.

''A small Gothic masterpiece . . . I have read it many times, and with every re-read I marvel again at its many qualities'' SARAH WATERS''A wonderful and original novel'' ALAN HOLLINGHURST''The strange off-beat talent of Barbara Comyns [whose] innocent eye observes with child-like simplicity the most fantastic or the most ominous occurrence'' GRAHAM GREENE ''Quite simply, Comyns writes like no one else'' MAGGIE O''FARRELLI comforted myself with the knowledge that at least I wasn''t earthbound like most people.In a house full of screeching animals in Edwardian South London, Alice lives in the shadow of her domineering father. Longing to escape, she retreats ever deeper into a world of memories, fantasies and rapturous longings - until she discovers an extraordinary secret power of her own. But the strange events that unfold lead her, dressed in bridal white, to a scene of ecstatic triumph and disaster among the crowds on Clapham Common. Blackly funny and indelibly haunting, The Vet''s Daughter combines shocking realism with a visionary edge.INTRODUCED BY JANE GARDAM

''Comyns''s world is weird and wonderful . . . a neglected genius'' LUCY SCHOLES, OBSERVER''A curious hybrid: a mixture of domestic disaster, social commentary, comedy, and romance . . . '' KATHERINE A. POWERS, BARNES & NOBLE REVIEW ''I defy anyone to read the opening pages and not to be drawn in, as I was . . . Quite simply, Comyns writes like no one else'' MAGGIE O''FARRELL Pretty, unworldly Sophia is twenty-one years old and hastily married to a young painter called Charles. An artist''s model with an eccentric collection of pets, she is ill-equipped to cope with the bohemian London of the 1930s where poverty, babies (however much loved) and husband conspire to torment her. Hoping to add some spice to her life, Sophia takes up with Peregrine, a dismal, ageing critic and comes to regret her marriage and her affair. But in this case virtue is more than its own reward, for repentance brings an abrupt end to the cycle of unsold pictures, unpaid bills and unwashed dishes . . .

''Tragic, comic and completely bonkers all in one, I''d go as far as to call her something of a neglected genius'' LUCY SCHOLES, GUARDIAN ''It is hard not to believe that Barbara Comyns''s own adventures are entangled in her fiction'' JANE GARDAM, SPECTATOR''All of her books read as if she wrote them effortlessly'' URSULA HOLDEN On the banks of the River Avon, five sisters are born. The seasons come and go, the girls take their lessons under the ash tree and there is always the sound of water swirling through the weir. Then, unexpectedly, an air of decay descends upon the house: ivy grows unchecked over the windows, angry shouts split the summer air, the milk sours in the larder and their father takes out his gun. Tragedy strikes the family, and before long the furniture is being auctioned off and the sisters dispersed among relatives. In her daring first novel, originally published in 1947, Barbara Comyns'' unique young heroine relates the vivid, funny and bittersweet story of a childhood.

''A small Gothic masterpiece . . . I have read it many times, and with every re-read I marvel again at its many qualities'' SARAH WATERS''A wonderful and original novel'' ALAN HOLLINGHURST''The strange off-beat talent of Barbara Comyns [whose] innocent eye observes with child-like simplicity the most fantastic or the most ominous occurrence'' GRAHAM GREENE ''Quite simply, Comyns writes like no one else'' MAGGIE O''FARRELLI comforted myself with the knowledge that at least I wasn''t earthbound like most people.In a house full of screeching animals in Edwardian South London, Alice lives in the shadow of her domineering father. Longing to escape, she retreats ever deeper into a world of memories, fantasies and rapturous longings - until she discovers an extraordinary secret power of her own. But the strange events that unfold lead her, dressed in bridal white, to a scene of ecstatic triumph and disaster among the crowds on Clapham Common. Blackly funny and indelibly haunting, The Vet''s Daughter combines shocking realism with a visionary edge.INTRODUCED BY JANE GARDAM