{"title":"Books by Barbara Comyns","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781911547860","title":"A Touch of Mistletoe","description":"\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Paperback \/ softback","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43205848924338,"sku":"9781911547860","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781911547860.jpg?v=1786029149"},{"product_id":"9781844088379","title":"Sisters By A River","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Tragic, comic and completely bonkers all in one, I'd go as far as to call her something of a neglected genius' LUCY SCHOLES,\u003ci\u003e GUARDIAN \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'It is hard not to believe that Barbara Comyns's own adventures are entangled in her fiction' JANE GARDAM, \u003ci\u003eSPECTATOR\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'All of her books read as if she wrote them effortlessly' URSULA HOLDEN \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn the banks of the River Avon, five sisters are born. The seasons come and go, the girls take their lessons under the ash tree and there is always the sound of water swirling through the weir. Then, unexpectedly, an air of decay descends upon the house: ivy grows unchecked over the windows, angry shouts split the summer air, the milk sours in the larder and their father takes out his gun. Tragedy strikes the family, and before long the furniture is being auctioned off and the sisters dispersed among relatives. In her daring first novel, originally published in 1947, Barbara Comyns' unique young heroine relates the vivid, funny and bittersweet story of a childhood.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43206275367090,"sku":"9781844088379","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781844088379_07357943-f305-4292-8cfb-01372ca0b56f.jpg?v=1786028605"},{"product_id":"9781681371313","title":"The Juniper Tree","description":"\u003cb\u003eA modern reimagining of a classic fairy tale by one of most bewitching, idiosyncratic British writers of the twentieth century.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBella Winter has hit a low. Homeless and jobless, she is the mother of a toddler by a man whose name she didn’t quite catch, and her once pretty face is disfigured by the scar she acquired in a car accident. Friendless and without family, she’s recently disentangled herself from a selfish and indifferent boyfriend and a cruel and indifferent mother. But she shares a quality common to Barbara Comyns’s other heroines: a bracingly unsentimental ability to carry on. Before too long, Bella has found not only a job but a vocation; not only a place to live but a home and a makeshift family. As Comyns’s novel progresses, the story echoes and inverts the Brothers Grimm’s macabre tale \u003ci\u003eThe Juniper Tree\u003c\/i\u003e. Will Bella’s hard-won restoration to life and love come at the cost of the happiness of others?","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56303426044277,"sku":"9781681371313","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781681371313_e14c24f1-7cbc-40f0-a90f-42db8098f80e.jpg?v=1786024505"},{"product_id":"9781844089277","title":"Our Spoons Came From Woolworths","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Comyns's world is weird and wonderful . . . a neglected genius' LUCY SCHOLES\u003ci\u003e, OBSERVER\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A curious hybrid: a mixture of domestic disaster, social commentary, comedy, and romance . . .  ' KATHERINE A. POWERS,\u003ci\u003e BARNES \u0026amp; NOBLE REVIEW \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'I defy anyone to read the opening pages and not to be drawn in, as I was . . . Quite simply, Comyns writes like no one else' MAGGIE O'FARRELL \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePretty, unworldly Sophia is twenty-one years old and hastily married to a young painter called Charles. An artist's model with an eccentric collection of pets, she is ill-equipped to cope with the bohemian London of the 1930s where poverty, babies (however much loved) and husband conspire to torment her. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHoping to add some spice to her life, Sophia takes up with Peregrine, a dismal, ageing critic and comes to regret her marriage and her affair. But in this case virtue is more than its own reward, for repentance brings an abrupt end to the cycle of unsold pictures, unpaid bills and unwashed dishes . . .\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308183564661,"sku":"9781844089277","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781844089277_eab236fd-af32-41ed-97c9-b4d5ae9593e9.jpg?v=1786028640"},{"product_id":"9781916254718","title":"The House of Dolls","description":"\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Paperback \/ softback","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308959084917,"sku":"9781916254718","price":10.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781916254718_c24c0790-c71b-46e0-ac5d-bd6a999ff112.jpg?v=1786031107"},{"product_id":"9781911547846","title":"Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead","description":"\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Paperback \/ softback","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56309229257077,"sku":"9781911547846","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781911547846_cba6974a-1b27-4fbc-8fcb-1b98bc81390a.jpg?v=1786034447"},{"product_id":"9781844088386","title":"The Vet's Daughter","description":"\u003cp\u003eINTRODUCED BY JANE GARDAM\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A small Gothic masterpiece . . . I have read it many times, and with every re-read I marvel again at its many qualities' SARAH WATERS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'It projects its fantastic story with a tangible realness . . . A wonderful and original novel' ALAN HOLLINGHURST\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'She shows mastery of the structures of a fast-moving narrative and a consistent backdrop to the ecstasies and agonies of the human condition' JANE GARDAM, \u003ci\u003eSPECTATOR \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGrowing up in Edwardian South London, Alice Rowlands longs for romance and excitement, for a release from a life that is dreary, restrictive and lonely. Her father, a vet, is harsh and domineering; his new girlfriend brash and lascivious. Alice seeks refuge in memories and fantasies, in her rapturous longing for Nicholas, a handsome young sailor and in the blossoming of what she perceives as her occult powers. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA series of strange events unfolds that leads her, dressed in bridal white to a scene of ecstatic triumph and disaster among the crowds on Clapham Common. \u003ci\u003eThe Vet's Daughter\u003c\/i\u003e is a uniquely vivid, witty and touching story of love and mystery.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56313044435317,"sku":"9781844088386","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781844088386_1a2f8750-cf6f-460e-a358-b9a4553180a5.jpg?v=1786028607"},{"product_id":"9780349019666","title":"The Vet's Daughter","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A small Gothic masterpiece . . . I have read it many times, and with every re-read I marvel again at its many qualities' \u003c\/b\u003eSARAH WATERS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A wonderful and original novel' \u003c\/b\u003eALAN HOLLINGHURST\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'The strange off-beat talent of Barbara Comyns [whose] innocent eye observes with child-like simplicity the most fantastic or the most ominous occurrence' \u003c\/b\u003eGRAHAM GREENE \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Quite simply, Comyns writes like no one else'\u003c\/b\u003e MAGGIE O'FARRELL\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI comforted myself with the knowledge that at least I wasn't earthbound like most people.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn a house full of screeching animals in Edwardian South London, Alice lives in the shadow of her domineering father. Longing to escape, she retreats ever deeper into a world of memories, fantasies and rapturous longings - until she discovers an extraordinary secret power of her own. 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