Grace

Maggie Gee is the author of seventeen critically acclaimed books, which have been translated into more than fifteen languages. These include the novels The Red Children, My Cleaner & The White Family (shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction & International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award), & a memoir, My Animal Life. Gee is a Fellow & Vice-President of the Royal Society of Literature & Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. She was awarded an OBE in 2012 for her services to literature. Paula is a victim of mysterious harassment. She lives near the railway line that carries nuclear waste through the heart of London and feels curiously, constantly unwell. Grace, her remarkable eighty-five-year-old aunt, deplores the evils of the modern world. When she, too, is plagued by silent phone calls, she escapes to Seabourne on the South Coast, where nothing ever happens except quiet deaths and holidays. Bruno is a sexually quirky private detective who attacks daisies with scissors, germs with bleach and old ladies for fun. If he follows Grace to Seabourne, can anything save her? Inspired by the real-life murder of anti-nuclear protester Hilda Murrell, Grace is a breathtaking thriller that asks whether, in a bankrupt, dishonest, security-mad Britain, courage and love still count for something. 'Excellent' The Times 'Heart-stoppingly exciting' Time Out 'Maggie Gee's excellent novel treads a sure path between love and fear, taking as its starting point sinister and secret happenings in contemporary England. I read it twice, and it was even better the second time.' Anita Brookner, The Spectator 'Full of poignancy and power.' Jeannette Winterson A modern morality play featuring 85-year-old Grace and her niece Paula, both striving for a vision of the future beyond the sinister face of modern Britain - its surface vulgarity and threats of apocalypse. It is a book about personal courage and the healing power of love.