Salley Vicker’s sensational debut novel, ‘Miss Garnet’s Angel’, is a voyage of discovery; a novel about Venice but also the rich story of the explosive possibilities of change in all of us at any time.Julia Garnet is a teacher. Just retired, she is left a legacy which she uses by leaving her orderly life and going to live – in winter – in an apartment in Venice. Its beauty, its secret corners and treasures, and its people overwhelm a lifetime of reserve and caution. Above all, she’...

From the author of Miss Garnet's Angel and the forthcoming The Cleaner of Chartres comes a relatable short story about family holidays.When Beth decides to treat her husband Hamish to a short holiday in the Scottish Highlands, his paternal home, she does not bet on the arrival of Una, her oddball mother-in-law. Una's quirks - swimming outdoors (naked) in the freezing cold, her St Tropez perma-tan and breaking into song- naturally put a strain on t...

With contributions by: William Boyd, Candice Carty-Williams, Imtiaz Dharker, Roddy Doyle, Pico Iyer, Robert Macfarlane, Andy Miller, Jackie Morris, Jan Morris, Sisonke Msimang, Dina Nayeri, Chigozie Obioma, Michael Ondaatje, David Pilling, Max Porter, Philip Pullman, Alice Pung, Jancis Robinson, S.F.Said, Madeleine Thien, Salley Vickers, John Wood and Markus Zusak***'This story, like so many stories, begins with a gift. The gift, like so many gifts, was a book...'*...

A novel from the best-selling author of ‘Miss Garnet's Angel’ and ‘Instances of the Number 3’.Holiday: a period in which a break is taken from work or studies for rest, travel, or recreation. [literally: holy day]Many years ago Mr Golightly wrote a work of dramatic fiction that grew to be an international bestseller. But his reputation is on the decline and he finds himself out of touch with the modern world.He decides to take a holiday and comes to the ancient vill...

The brilliant new novel from the bestselling author of ‘Mr Golightly's Holiday’ and ‘Miss Garnet’s Angel’.'There is no cure for being alive.' Thus speaks Dr David McBride, a psychiatrist for whom death exerts an unusual draw. As a young child he witnessed the death of his six-year-old brother and it is this traumatic event which has shaped his own personality and choice of profession. One day a failed suicide, Elizabeth Cruikshank, is admitted to his hospital. She is unusually reti...

The long-awaited new novel from Salley Vickers, bestselling and much-loved author of Miss Garnet's Angel and The Other Side of You.Violet Hetherington has taken the rash step of joining a transatlantic cruise ship to New York to visit Edwin, an old friend. As she makes the six day crossing, she relives the traumatic events that led to her losing Edwin's friendship, and abandoning her career as a poet, for the safety of marriage and domesticity.Despite her natural reserve, s...

“If you enjoy the work of Marilynne Robinson, Penelope Fitzgerald, James Salter…you should be reading Vickers.” —Michael Dirda, The Washington Post Book WorldThere is something very special about Agnès Morel. A quiet presence in the small French town of Chartres, she can usually be found cleaning the famed medieval cathedral or doing odd jobs for the townspeople. No one knows where she came from or why. Not diffident Abbé Paul, nor lonely Professor Jones, ...

The fantastic new edition of the bestselling second novel from the author of ‘Miss Garnet’s Angel’.Bridget Hansome and Frances Slater have only one thing in common. And that's Peter Hansome, who has died suddenly. Without their husband or lover, the women find that before they can rebuild their lives they must look to themselves and unravel mysteries that they had never before even suspected. So begins an unlikely alliance between wife and mistress and a voyage of discovery that is...

A short story by Salley Vickers from the collection Reader, I Married Him: Stories inspired by Jane Eyre.In ‘Reader, She Married Me’ Mr Rochester reveals a long-kept secret.Edited by Tracy Chevalier, the full collection, Reader I Married Him, brings together some of the finest and most creative voices in fiction today, to celebrate and salute the strength and lasting relevance of Charlotte Brontë’s game-changing novel and its beloved narrator.

'This delicious confection will work its magic on all' Daily TelegraphThe discreet advertisement in The Times, addressed 'To Those who Appreciate Wistaria and Sunshine', offers a small medieval castle for rent, above a bay on the Italian Riviera. Four very different women - the dishevelled and downtrodden Mrs Wilkins, the sad, sweet-faced Mrs Arbuthnot, the formidable widow Mrs Fisher and the ravishing socialite Lady Caroline Dester - are drawn to the shores of th...

A wonderful collection of stories from the much-loved Salley Vickers.The stories in this long-awaited collection by Salley Vickers all deal with psychological aspects of love: love given and withheld, love craved and lost, love met and disappointed; the differing shades of loves between friends, between parents and children, between children and other adults; love even, in one case, for a pet.Psychologically acute, sharply written in lucid and often witty prose, these stori...

What does it mean to 'kiss and part'? This collection of previously unpublished short stories from a stellar list of contemporary women novelists is a literary celebration of the spirit of place. All royalties go the Hosking Houses Trust to further encourage women’s writing.