It is twenty years since Julius died, but his last heroic action still
affects the lives of the people he left behind.Emma, his youngest daughter,
twenty-seven years old and afraid of men. Cressida, her sister, a war
widow, blindly searching for love in her affairs with married men. Esme,
Julius's widow, still attractive at fifty-eight, but aimlessly lost in the
routine of her perfect home. Felix, Esme's old lover, who left her when
Julius died and who is still plagued by guilt for his action. And Dan, an
outsider.Throughout a disastrous - and revelatory - weekend in Sussex, the
influence of the dead Julius slowly emerges . . .'A novel that commands
both respect and applause' Sunday Times