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´Simmonds is a copper-bottomed genius... she is as brilliant a writer as Britain has´ Jenny Colgan, Mail Online

Cassandra Darke is an art dealer, mean, selfish, solitary by nature, living in Chelsea in a house worth Pds. 7 million.

She has become a social pariah, but doesn´t much care. Between one Christmas and the next, she has sullied the reputation of a West End gallery and has acquired a conviction for fraud, a suspended sentence and a bank balance drained by lawsuits. On the scale of villainy, fraud seems to Cassandra a rather paltry offence - her own crime involving ´no violence, no weapon, no dead body´.

But in Cassandra´s basement, her young ex-lodger, Nicki, has left a surprise, something which implies at least violence and probably a body . . . Something which forces Cassandra out of her rich enclave and onto the streets. Not those local streets paved with gold and lit with festive glitter, but grimmer, darker places, where she must make the choice between self-sacrifice and running for her life.

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"Simmonds is a copper-bottomed genius... she is as brilliant a writer as Britain has." Jenny Colgan Mail Online

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Posy Simmonds is the author of many books for adults and children, including Gemma Bovery, Lulu and the Flying Babies and Fred, the film of which was nominated for an Oscar. She has won international awards for her work, including the Grand Prix 2009 de la Critique Bande Dessiné for Tamara Drewe. Both Gemma Bovery and Tamara Drewe have been made into successful feature films. She lives in London.

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