Children begin by loving their parents. After a time they judge them. Rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.' Emily has not yet reached the age of judgement. For her, normality consists of contentment and magic and there is no possibility of change in the seeming happiness of her parents - Fen, beautiful and mercurial, and Idle, a hardworking and gentle man. She loves them both and her image of them is together - indivisible, laughing, dancing, making every day scintillate with life. When change does come, Emily is a helpless spectator, confused by the puzzle of ill-fitting events. It is seldom that an exceptional book is written about a child's world for it requires unusual imagination and a sharp, delicate touch. Combining these, Angela Huth looks at the vicissitudes of grown-up behaviour through the eyes of a child who watches and suffers from them. The situation - an all too familiar one - is treated with both poignant humour and ruthless honesty.

Angela Huth is the daughter of the actor Harold Huth. She left school at age 16 in order to paint and to study art in both France and Italy. At 18 she travelled, mostly alone, across the United States before returning to England to work on a variety of newspapers and magazines. She married journalist and travel writer Quentin Crewe and soon became known most for her writing, having written three collections of short stories and 11 novels. She also writes plays for radio, television and stage, and is a well-known freelance journalist, critic, and broadcaster. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.