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Four young people in 1970s´ London fuelled by love, betrayal and creative ambition

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As read on BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime

Luke is a young playwright: intense, magnetic and hungry for experience. Fleeing a disastrous upbringing in the North East he arrives in London and shares a flat with Paul, an aspiring producer, and beautiful, fiery Leigh.

The three of them set up a radical theatre company, their friendship forged in rehearsal rooms above pubs, candlelit power cuts, and smoky late-night parties, part of a thrilling new generation of writers, directors and rising voices.

When Nina, a fragile actress, strays towards their group, Luke recognises a damaged soul and the balance between the friends is threatened. Luke is torn between loyalty, desire and his own painful past, until everything he values, even the promise of the future, is in danger. Suddenly the fallout threatens to be immense.

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"An intoxicating and immersive read... It is a fraught and compelling novel; one that replays itself uncomfortably in the mind long after it is finished" Lucy Atkins Sunday Times

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Sadie Jones is a novelist and screenwriter who was born and brought up in London. Her first novel, The Outcast (´Riveting´, Lionel Shriver; ´Devastatingly good´, Daily Mail) was the winner of the Costa First Novel Award. It was also shortlisted for the Orange Prize and was a Richard and Judy Summer Reads Number One bestseller. Sadie adapted The Outcast for BBC Television in 2014. Her second novel, Small Wars, (´Outstanding´, The Times; ´One of the best books about the English at war ever´, Joel Morris), was published in 2009, and longlisted for the Orange Prize. Her third, in 2010, was The Uninvited Guests . 2009 (´ ... a shimmering comedy of manners and disturbing commentary on class... a brilliant novel.´ Ann Patchett, author of State of Wonder. ´Delightful, eerie novel ... puts one in mind of Hilary Mantel´s Beyond Black ...´ The Daily Telegraph . ) Her most recent novel, published May 2014, is Fallout , (´Intoxicating and immersive.´ The Sunday Times; ´Intense.. unflinching´, The New York Times), is now out in paperback. Sadie is married to the architect, Tim Boyd, and they live in West London with their two children.

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