Lying In Bed by Polly Samson
Do you cover up or reveal it all; seek revenge or just reassurance; let the truth be naked as the day or cloaked in a night-time story? Vengeful wives, jealous husbands, femme fatales, reluctant fiancees, daddy's girls, secretive nannies, worldly children - the men and women of Polly Samson's debut fiction all have stories to tell, pasts to forget, futures to forge. Manipulative or meek, used or using, all are aware of the power of truth, deception & little white lies to get what they want or sometimes what they deserve. Some are concerned with the economies of speech, those little 'kindnesses' which protect our loved ones but really ourselves; some investigate the warped logic which adults serve out to children to keep them 'innocent'; all are concerned with the beds we make & the lies we tell in them...
'Polly Samson is no minor talent.. prose that makes you miss your bus stop' GUARDIAN 'Highly intelligent, fresh and compelling. Samson has definitely made her mark' THE TIMES 'Samson's writing is fluent ... She has a slyness that occasionally recalls Roald Dahl' SUNDAY TIMES 'Samson is a sympathetic and observant narrator... these are clever, elegant pieces, complex, compact and memorable.' INDEPENDENT 'An engaging and unsettling collection.' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Her fluent emotional vocabulary and dark-edged descriptive clarity lend credence to some of her more proposterous conceits and give her fiction a disconcerting edge.' TIME OUT 'There is no denying Samson's inchoate talent.' NEW STATESMAN 'Polly Samson's first collection of short stories reveals a woman steeped in the psychodrama of emotional manipulation. Even the youngest of her narrators are expert in beguiling their parents into a false sense of security, only to spring a fiendishly executed surprise on them which overturns the false assumptions of their adult world. In "Subterfuge", a minx of a teenager hoards lacy knickers at the back of her cupboard whilst meekly offering her navy blue pants to Mum for washing. The ruse is perfect, until sex and drugs rear their ugly head and Mum realises her little madam is a thorn in the family's side and swiftly removes her. Elsewhere, a thirtysomething woman regrets the child she will never have and settles for her childishly demanding husband--an open-ended denouement that hints at the endless mental agony of unfulfilled dreams. Meanwhile, her friend in "The Mermaid's Purse" makes her choice, finds a sperm donor and wreaks havoc in everyone's life but her own. Selfishness pays out, it seems, and the casualties are left to wreak revenge, or suffer in silence. Samson's skill lies in digging beneath that silence to communicate the warped tales we tell ourselves in order to survive.' - Lilian Pizzichini, AMAZON.CO.UK REVIEW
Polly Samson has worked in publishing and as a journalist, most recently for the SUNDAY TIMES. She is married with three young sons.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781860496684 |
| ISBN 10 | 1860496687 |
| Title | Lying In Bed |
| Author | Polly Samson |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Little, Brown Book Group |
| Year published | 1999-04-01 |
| Number of pages | 224 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |