"'What gives this wonderfully sparse book its tension and grasp are the clashes between two movements - like two cymbals being brought together, the movement backwards of memory, and the movement forward of consequences. And so it speaks history, and one cannot stop listening' - John Berger; 'The way she intertwines past and present, nightmare and social comedy, brutal suffering and contemporary flirtation is adroit and elegant... everyone will read with horror and fascination' - Edmund White"

Lisa Appignanesi's bestselling fiction includes Sanctuary and The Dead of Winter (Bantam) as well as The Things We Do for Love, A Good Women, Dreams of Innocence and Memory and Desire (HarperCollins); nonfiction includes Losing the Dead (Chatto/Vintage) and Cabaret (new ed Yale 2004).