Description

‘Her stories remain with one, indelibly, as though they had been some turning-point in one’s own experience’ – Elizabeth Bowen, author of The Heat of the Day

Intelligent and haunting, with echoes of Brief Encounter, this is a love story by one of the best British writers of the 20th century.

During summer games of hide and seek Harriet falls in love with Vesey and his elusive, teasing ways. When he goes to Oxford she cherishes his photograph and waits for a letter that never comes.

Years pass and Harriet stifles her dreams; with a husband and daughter, she excels at respectability. But then Vesey reappears and her marriage seems to melt away. Harriet is older, it is much too late, but she is still in love with him.

Publisher Review

Always intelligent, often subversive and never dull, Elizabeth Taylor is the thinking person's dangerous housewife. Her sophisticated prose combines elegance, icy wit and freshness in a stimulating cocktail - the perfect toast to the quiet horror of domestic life * Valerie Martin * A magnificent and underrated mid-20th-century writer, the missing link between Jane Austen and John Updike' -- David Baddiel * Independent * A Game of Hide and Seek showcases much of what makes Taylor a great novelist: piercing insight, a keen wit and a genuine sense of feeling for her characters -- Elizabeth Day * Guardian * Her stories remain with one, indelibly, as though they had been some turning-point in one's own experience * ELIZABETH BOWEN * Elizabeth Taylor is finally being recognised as an important British author: an author of great subtlety, great compassion and great depth. As a reader, I have found huge pleasure in returning to Taylor's novels and short stories many times over. As a writer I've returned to her too - in awe of her achievements, and trying to work out how she does it * Sarah Waters * A magnificent and underrated mid-20th-century writer, the missing link between Jane Austen and John Updike' * Independent * The unsung heroine of British 20th-century fiction. Elizabeth Taylor wrote 12 novels, and each displays her exquisitely light touch, her firt for discreet irony and her skill at revealing the emotional depths behind even the meekest exterior. She is at her very best here, a novel in which love is never declared, but is meticulously evoked. No writer has described the English middle classes with more gently devastating accuracy * Rebecca Abrams, SPECTATOR *