The Lessons

'A glittering style, a compulsive pleasure. A seductive homage to Donna Tartt and Brideshead Revisited'
Metro

James, always the outsider, enters Oxford - high seat of privilege, wealth and ambition. There he meets Mark Winters - dissolute, astonishingly, heartbreakingly rich, and pitilessly cruel - and the fellow students he has gathered around him- untouchable Emmanuella; on-again/off-again Simon and Franny; and passionate, true Jess.

The nights - and many of the days - become one long party. Friendships are made, and broken. Lovers swapped, or dropped. It is all beguiling and bewitching. Everything James dreamed of but never quite believed in.

But after university they are each cast out into an indifferent world. Free of Mark and his dark influence, they are lost to one another, until one night tragedy strikes . . .

'Wise, compassionate and heart-rending, a novel that conveys all the cruelty and pain of gilded youth' Liz Jensen

'Strong and true . . . hooks you in. A good read' Observer

'Beautifully written, satisfyingly complex' New Statesman

'Beguiling, beautifully caught . . . reminiscent of Brideshead Revisited' Scotsman