In her captivating follow up to Glasshopper Mail on Sunday Novel Competition winner Isabel Ashdown explores the treacherous territory of teenage friendships & traces across the decades the repercussions of a dangerous relationship. Its more than two decades since Sarah Ribbons last set foot inside her old high school a crumbling Victorian-built comprehensive on the south coast of Engl&. Now as she prepares for her school reunion 39-year-old Sarah has to face up to the truth of what really happened back in the summer of 1986. August 1985: Sarah celebrates her fifteenth birthday in the back garden of the suburban seaside house she shares with her ageing father. As she embarks on her fifth & final year at Selton High School for Girls Sarahs main focus is on her erratic friendships with Tina & Kate her closest allies one moment her fiercest opponents the next. When Sarahs father is unexpectedly taken ill Sarah is sent to stay with Kates family in nearby Amber Chalks. Kates youthful parents welcome her into the comfort of their liberal family home where the girls can eat off trays & watch TV in Kates bedroom. Theyve never been closer
- until a few days into her stay events take a sinister turn & Sarah knows that nothing will ever be the same again.