A.S. Byatt’s vivid and deeply affecting historical fiction is the story of a singular family, played out against the great, rippling tides of the day.

In the golden summers of Edwardian times, the Wellwood children play in a story-book world in their rambling house near Romney Marsh. But their lives, and those of their cousins and friends - are already inscribed with mystery. As the sons rebel against their parents and the girls dream of independent futures, they are unaware that in the darkness ahead they will unintentionally be betrayed by the adults who love them. This is the children’s book.

Shortlisted
The Man Booker Prize 2009
Published by
Chatto & Windus
Publication date

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A.S. Byatt

A.S. Byatt

About the Author

A.S. Byatt won the Booker Prize in 1990 with Possession and was shortlisted in 2009 with The Children’s Book. Writing, she said, ‘is simply the most important thing in my life’
More about A.S. Byatt

Other nominated books by A.S. Byatt

Possession: A Romance
Prize winner