The Holiday Friend: The Modern Classic - Softcover

Hansford-Johnson, Pamela

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1473679877 ISBN 13: 9781473679870

Publisher: Hodder, 2019

Synopsis

'A powerful tragedy' Independent

Described by the New York Times upon her death as 'one of Britain's best-known novelists', plunge yourself into the wry world of Pamela Hansford Johnson in this story of seduction and marriage, perfect for fans of Elizabeth Jane Howard and Barbara Pym.

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Gavin and Hannah Eastwood are a happy couple, holidaying with their overprotected eleven-year-old son Giles in a beautiful village on the coast of Belgium.

Melissa is a student of Gavin's, also in the village, having followed Gavin there. A hopeless romantic living in a fantasy, she obsessively follows the family, going out of her way to bump into the couple repeatedly - soon becoming inescapable.

While Gavin pities her, Hannah finds her presence alarming; and while they're distracted by her appearances, they miss Giles secretly pursuing his own sinister friendship. . .

'Teases your curiosity and plays on your sympathy' Kirkus

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Praise for Pamela Hansford Johnson:

'Witty, satirical and deftly malicious' Anthony Burgess

'A remarkable craftswoman' A.S. Byatt

'Hansford Johnson at her wittiest is Waugh mingled with Malcolm Bradbury Ruth Rendell

'A writer whose memory fully deserves to be kept alive' Jonathan Coe

About this title

About the Author:

Pamela Hansford Johnson was born in 1912. As a novelist, she gained recognition with her first novel, This Bed Thy Centre, published in 1935. She then went on to write 26 more novels throughout her life, ranging in genre from romantic and high comedy to tragedy, and the psychological study of cruelty, with themes centred around the moral responsibility of the individual in their personal and social relations. She was also a well-respected critic, a leading Proustian scholar, an essayist, a playwright, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a CBE. She died in 1981.

Review:

A powerful tragedy―Independent

Witty, satirical and deftly malicious―Anthony Burgess

Sharply observed, artfully constructed and always enlivened by the freshness of an imagery that derives from [Johnson's] poetic beginnings―TLS

Miss Johnson is one of the most accomplished of the English women writers―Kirkus

Hansford Johnson at her wittiest is Waugh mingled with Malcolm Bradbury―Ruth Rendell

A writer whose memory fully deserves to be kept alive―Jonathan Coe, author of THE HOUSE OF SLEEP

A remarkable craftswoman―A.S Byatt, author of POSSESSION

About this edition

• Publisher: Hodder
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1473679877
• ISBN 13: 9781473679870
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272