'A GOTHIC MASTERPIECE' THE TIMES
'A SPARKY, FUNNY WORK OF GENIUS' ALI SMITH
'RARE, THRILLING, ONE OF A KIND' MAGGIE O'FARRELL

At the bottom of a great stone staircase, dressed in her mother's black lace evening dress, twisted in murderous death and lamented only by her pet jackdaw, lies Janet. So end the sixteen years of Janet's short life.

A life spent in a draughty Scottish castle, where roses will not grow and a jackdaw lives in the doll's house.

A life peopled by prettier, smoother-haired siblings, a nanny with a face like the North Sea and peculiar, whisky-swigging Cousin Lila.

A life where Janet is perpetually misunderstood - and must turn from people, to animals, to books, to her own wild and wonderful imagination.

In the tradition of Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle, this is a darkly humorous modern classic of Scottish literature, beloved by all who encounter it.

A W&N Essential with an Introduction by Maggie O'Farrell