A novel of love, death and aristocracy in twenties London.

Consider Vivien in November 1922. She is twenty-four, and a spinster. She wears fashionably droopy clothes, but she is plain and - worse - intelligent. Fortunately, Vivien is rich, so she can bribe a man to marry her. What nobody knows is that Vivien is pregnant, and will die in childbirth in just a few months...

Weldon's work includes more than twenty novels, five collections of short stories, several children's books, nonfiction books, magazine articles, and a number of plays written for television, radio, and the stage. She was awarded a CBE in 2001.