Jane Allsop was abducted when she was fifteen,and nobody noticed. This happened a long time ago,in Surrey,in the 1960's when parents were more careless.
Sometimes it's the ordinary things that turn out to be the most extraordinary.
The history of a length of fabric,say,and a forgotten jacket or two sisters quarrelling over an inheritance and a new baby; a child awake in the night explores the familiar rooms of her home,strange in the dark; a housekeeper caring for a helpless old man uncovers secrets from his past.
The first steps into a turning point and a new life are made so easily and carelessly: the stories focus in on crucial moments of transition,often imperceptible to the protagonists. A girl accepts a lift in a car with some older boys,or a young woman reads the diaries she comes across when she's housesitting.
Small acts have large consequences,and some of them reverberate across decades; things fantasised in private can reach out to affect other people,for better and worse.
An older woman recovering from serious illness speaks to a lonely young man on a train; an old friend brings bad news to a dinner party; a schoolteacher in the throes of a painful affair in 1914 has mixed feelings about her pupils'suffragette-craze.
The real things that happen to people,the accidents that befall them,are every bit as mysterious as their longings and their dreams. Bad Dreams shows yet again that Tessa Hadley is a master of her art,one of the very finest writers at work in Britain today.
Publisher: Vintage PublishingISBN: 9781784704049Number of pages: 224Weight: 125 gDimensions: 199 x 130 x 15 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
"Few writers give me such consistent pleasure." - Zadie Smith
"Tessa Hadley has become one of this country's great contemporary novelists...possessed of a psychological subtlety reminiscent of Henry James,and an ironic beadiness worthy of Jane Austen" - Guardian
"(It is) lapidary,full of the most gorgeous sentences and brilliant observations." - Alex Preston,Observer,2017 Books of the Year
"Hadley's quiet rise to become one of Britain's best writers is further confirmed by her new collection,Bad Dreams and Other Stories... These well-turned,exceptionally nuanced pieces are solidly evocative of place,period...and sensory detail." - Phil Baker,Sunday Times
Tessa Hadley
Born in Bristol,Tessa Hadley is a critically acclaimed novelist and writer who is best known for her forensically close observations of modern family life. A lecturer in literature and creative writing,she is a specialist on the works of Henry James.
Visit the Tessa Hadley author page
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