The Woman in the Picture

Description

On his return to Britain after the First World War, Henry Whitaker begins his career as a film-maker - first as assistant to the legendary director Arthur Maxted, and then as one of the country's foremost documentary-makers. But all the while he yearns to create a feature film of his own - a work of art that will give his life meaning. Interwoven with Henry's narrative is the present day quest of his daughter, Miranda, to understand what happened to her mother, a refugee Henry met and married in Germany at the end of the war. Did Henry - as his daughter has always supposed - drive Romana to suicide? Or do Miranda's half-repressed childhood memories hint at an altogether more complex and extraordinary truth?

James Wilson was born in Cambridge in 1948 and educated at Oxford University. He has written plays, TV documentaries and a critically acclaimed history of Native Americans, The Earth Shall Weep. He lives with his wife and family in Bristol, and is currently at work on his second novel.