When Rosie, a successful radio presenter, hears that her father has had a stroke, her life is thrown into disarray & she finds herself making reckless decisions that make little sense to those around her. As she strives towards building some kind of future for herself & her father, he quietly plots his own death...

Set on the east coast of Scotl&, the novel covers events in the weeks following the stroke & the lives of this small cast of captivating but very real characters. Exploring the impact of memory & conscience, it tackles a dysfunctional family at a time of crisis, delving into the complexities of emotions & family history with compassion, humour & grace. In subtle, distinctive prose, alive with wit & verve, Sue Peebles has written a captivating, lovable & unusual novel
- a domestic canvas where every stroke counts.


...

When Rosie, a successful radio presenter, hears that her father has had a stroke, her life is thrown into disarray & she finds herself making reckless decisions that make little sense to those around her. As she strives towards building some kind of future for herself & her father, he quietly plots his own death...

Set on the east coast of Scotl&, the novel covers events in the weeks following the stroke & the lives of this small cast of captivating but very real characters. Exploring the impact of memory & conscience, it tackles a family at a time of crisis, delving into the complexities of emotions & family history with compassion, humour & grace. In subtle, distinctive prose, alive with wit & verve, Sue Peebles has written a captivating, lovable & unusual novel
- a domestic canvas where every detail counts.


...

When Rosie, a successful radio presenter, hears that her father has had a stroke, her life is thrown into disarray & she finds herself making reckless decisions that make little sense to those around her. As she strives towards building some kind of future for herself & her father, he quietly plots his own death...

Set on the east coast of Scotl&, the novel covers events in the weeks following the stroke & the lives of this small cast of captivating but very real characters. Exploring the impact of memory & conscience, it tackles a family at a time of crisis, delving into the complexities of emotions & family history with compassion, humour & grace. In subtle, distinctive prose, alive with wit & verve, Sue Peebles has written a captivating, lovable & unusual novel
- a domestic canvas where every detail counts.


...

It is London in the late 1930s, & into a coterie of rather grand early-middle-aged people the sixteen-year-old orphan Portia is plunged beyond her depth. Disconcertingly vulnerable, Portia is manifestly trying to understand what is going on around her & looking for something that is not there. Evident victim, she is also an inadvertent victimiser
- her impossible lovingness & austere trust being too much for her admirer Eddie, who is himself defensive & uncomfortable in this society which has managed to bring them together. In the midst of the rising tension is set perhaps Elizabeth Bowen's most brilliant piece of social comedy, when, at a seaside villa full of rollicking young people, Portia experiences at least temporary relief from the misery Eddie seems determined to bring her.
...

Damian Drake rescues his dog from a well & gets his name into the newspapers. He then receives a letter from a girl he has never met which sparks off a long correspondence between the two. As more & more letters are exchanged a sinister thread creeps in & the story gathers speed for a final amazing drama. ...

In 1950s Britain, a group of decadent aristocrats operated their own 'secret season', an alternative to the tedious official round of balls & court presentations. Instead of being groomed for marriage, pretty young 'debutantes' are trained, tormented & finally auctioned off in a bizarre parody of the real debutantes' presentation at court. Angela is inducted into this secret world. Though the punishments she endures turn her on, she becomes increasingly alarmed as she realises she will end up as the property of a wicked aristocrat. Soon she is consumed by the question that torments many of the 'secret season' debutantes: which of these cruel men & women will acquire her? ...

As the dramatic climax of The Sea of Fertility, The Decay of the Angel brings together the dominant themes of the three previous novels: the meaning & decay of Japan's courtly tradition & samurai ideal; the essence & value of Buddhist philosophy & aesthetics; &, underlying all, Mishima's apocalyptic vision of the modern era, which saw the dissolution of the moral & cultural forces that throughout the ages nourished a people & a world. The time is the late 1960s. Honda, now an aged & wealthy man, discovers & adopts a sixteen-year-old orphan, Toru, as his heir, identifying him with the tragic protagonists of the three previous novels, each of whom died at the age of twenty. Honda raises & educates the boy, yet watches him, waiting. ...

As the dramatic climax of The Sea of Fertility, The Decay of the Angel brings together the dominant themes of the three previous novels: the meaning & decay of Japan's courtly tradition & samurai ideal; the essence & value of Buddhist philosophy & aesthetics; &, underlying all, Mishima's apocalyptic vision of the modern era, which saw the dissolution of the moral & cultural forces that throughout the ages nourished a people & a world. The time is the late 1960s. Honda, now an aged & wealthy man, discovers & adopts a sixteen-year-old orphan, Toru, as his heir, identifying him with the tragic protagonists of the three previous novels, each of whom died at the age of twenty. Honda raises & educates the boy, yet watches him, waiting. ...