Regatta - Couverture souple

. . . an engrossing story about childhood, courage and reconciliation (Books Magazine)

MORE LIVES THAN ONE:

'an idiosyncratic blend of her journalistic voice ... With the skills of a writer who understands the proper balance in a novel between issue and narrative. ... This is her best novel ... [and] will find an answering echo in many readers' Elizabeth Buchan, The Times

Ms Purves softens the sharp edges with a piquancy and humour which are truly brilliant (Gina Sykes, Huddersfield Examiner)

Libby Purves has created a complex and appealing character in a novel which develops to an exciting conclusion (Vanessa Berridge, Woman & Home)

'Purves's evocative descriptions of Venice intensify an already gripping narrative' Mail on Sunday

Purves is at her most enjoyable when she is . . . displaying in her treatment of her characters, the mixture of generosity and common sense with which readers of her columns in The Times will already be familiar (Christina Koenig, The Times)

'Her story of Kit Milcourt [...] is passionately felt and a moving expos? of the graveyard of talent, imagination and energy that is the domain of too many schools.' Elizabeth Buchan, Night & Day (Dec '98)

poignant, intelligent and hilarious (Suffolk & Norfolk Life)

'all the compassion characteristic of her writing in her previous novels and columns. ... This is a humane and perceptive novel' Woman & Home

Sheila Harrison always looks forward to the descent of the summer visitors onto 'Seafret', her tall brick house right on the front at Blythney, in East Anglia. She loves the way her spare bedrooms are full, from June to September, with successive waves of children - schoolfriends of her own three and the waifs and strays sent by the Country Hosts' Association.

But Sheila is not prepared for the upheaval caused by one young girl, Anansi, who arrives from a background that Sheila can only guess at. Urban, streetwise, knowing beyond her years, Anansi refuses to be patronised by Sheila's well-meaning attempts to make her feel at home. She looks at Sheila, her family and friends, with eyes unclouded by familiarity - and drops a bombshell. Even when the dust has settled, summers will never be the same again.