A Spell of Winter: WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION

Description

Winner of the inaugural Orange Prize for Fiction, now a Penguin Essential Catherine and her brother, Rob, don't know why they have been abandoned by their parents. Incarcerated in the enormous country house of their grandfather - 'the man from nowhere' - they create a refuge against their family's dark secrets - and the outside world as it moves towards the First World War. As time passes their sibling love deepens and crosses into forbidden territory - but they are not as alone in the house as they believe...

Helen Dunmore was an award-winning novelist, children's author and poet. She published twelve novels including Zennor in Darkness, which won the McKitterick Prize; Burning Bright; A Spell of Winter, which won the inaugural Orange Prize in 1996; Talking to the Dead; Your Blue-Eyed Boy; With Your Crooked Heart; The Siege, which was shortlisted for the 2001 Whitbread Novel of the Year Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction 2002; Mourning Ruby and House of Orphans. She was posthumously awarded the Costa 2017 prize for her poetry collection Inside the Wave.

A marvellous novel about forbidden passions * Daily Mail * An intensely gripping book...written so seductively that some passages sing out from the page, like music for the eyes * Sunday Times * A hugely involving story which often stops you in your tracks with the beauty of its writing * Observer * An electrifying and original talent, a writer whose style is characterized by a lyrical, dreamy intensity * Guardian *