Sylvia Townsend Warner was one of the most original and inventive of twentieth-century English novelists.

The story follows Laura Willowes, a spinster who defies societal expectations by embracing a life of independence and adventure in the English countryside.

'Worth £9.99 for the book jacket alone (trust Faber) ... It's exquisite and shivery, just like the stories within ... By turns creepy, melancholy, horrifying, tragic and beltingly romantic.' Sunday Times 'One of our finest writers.

Long after the book's publication, Warner began the novellaThe Salutation. Now adrift and starving on the Brazilian pampas, Mr. Fortune is rescued by an elderly widow, who delights in having an Englishman about the house.

A new collection of essays on literature and sexuality by one of the wittiest and most iconoclastic critics writing today.

In this enthralling and enlightening biography, Claire Harman tells the story of Warner's remarkable life and restores her to her rightful place as one of Britain's most unique and brilliant writers.