Introduced by Lucy Scholes

'Who would suspect her of a sense of fun and irony, of a passionate love for beauty and the power to drag it from its hidden places? Who would imagine that Miss Mole had pictured herself, at different times, as an explorer in strange lands, as a lady wrapped in luxury and delicate garments?'

To all appearances, Hannah Mole is the perfect servant: plain, quiet and efficient. For twenty years she has earned her living as a companion to a succession of demanding elderly women. Ostensibly she knows her place - and can usually curb her tongue - but with wry humour and a lively imagination, she keeps reality at bay.

Now aged forty, a thin and shabby figure, Miss Mole returns to Radstowe, the lovely town of her youth. Here, if not exactly welcomed, she is at least sheltered and employed by the pompous Reverend Robert Corder. A competent housekeeper, she transforms the dreary vicarage and gives gentle guidance to his unhappy daughters - while never letting the reverend suspect that her intellect surpasses his own. But she must be wary, for her past holds a secret which, if brought to light, will jeopardise her precarious existence.

'Young is a sharp and funny writer with a brilliant eye for moral fudging and verbal hypocrisy, and she has a splendid foil in Miss Mole' Sally Beauman

WINNER OF THE JAMES TAIT BLACK MEMORIAL PRIZE