GLASSHOPPER by Isabel Ashdown (signed)

Signed by the author. Isabel Ashdown's award-winning debut novel (Myriad, 2009)

(price includes UK 2nd class shipment)

Isabel Ashdown's debut GLASSHOPPER was named among Best Books of the Year by both London Evening Standard and Observer newspaper, after an extract won a national Novel Writing competition, judged by the late Fay Weldon and the late Sir John Mortimer.

Portsmouth, England, 1984. Despite his turbulent home life, 13-year-old Jake is an irrepressible teenager and his troubled mother is not the only thing on his mind; there's the hi-fi he's saving up for, his pretty classics teacher and his brief visits to see his dad. When his parents reconcile, life finally seems to be looking up. Their first family holiday, announced over scampi and chips in the Royal Oak, promises to be the icing on the cake - until long-unspoken family secrets begin to surface.

"A thought-provoking tale of family dysfunction, spanning the second half of the 20th century, that guarantees laughter at the uncomfortable familiarity of it all." - Juliet Nicolson, London Evening Standard Books of the Year

"Tender and subtle, it explores difficult issues in deceptively easy prose ... This is a wonderful debut - intelligent, understated and sensitive." - Observer newspaper

"Ashdown's storytelling skills are formidable; her human insights highly perceptive." - Daily Mail