The Language of Birds: the novel inspired by the Lord Lucan affair

Mandy is a gorgeous creation, a character so warm and vivid you half wish you could take her out for a drink . . . Dawson is good at delineating class, particularly as it manifested itself in the '70s, when the clenched '50s and the new world of the '60s were still in a fight to the death: every detail is perfect, from children's toys to mealtimes . . . it's impossible to tire of Mandy, or of Neville, the West Indian man with whom she falls in love - Observer, Book of the DayIn a class of its own . . . A glimmeringly intelligent, vital and compassionate exploration of nature,nurture and female desire, it also taps a deep vein of anger and sorrow at the fate of innumerable abused and murdered women. Timely, devastating and superbly realised. - Daily MailPoignant and heartbreaking. - Cosmopolitan[Dawson has] an extraordinary facility with language and mood . . . her unsettling novel combines the suspense of a thriller and a haunting sense of melancholy with none of the queasy excess of the true crime genre. - Catherine Taylor, Financial Times - Financial TimesGripping . . . This dazzling novel combines the pace of a thriller with moving, poetic writing. - Good Housekeeping Book of the MonthThe complex intersections of the mother-baby-nanny triangle and the loneliness of childcare are beautifully depicted . . .The narrative's progress towards the terrifying evening in the dark basement kitchen has the ineluctable pull of tragic myth. We know what must come, but this knowledge never detracts from the memorable beauty and intelligence of the novel. By focussing on the victim, Dawson allows us to completely rethink the original story in a way that honours Sandra Rivett's short life. - Sofka Zinovieff, GuardianHighly engrossing . . . Dawson gives powerful voice to someone silenced in history . . . She delves unflinchingly into themes of domestic violence, mental illness and murder with sensitivity and skill. Her greatest achievement is to make Mandy live from these pages not only as a victim of murder but as a young woman filled with an energy too cruelly cut short. - Anita Sethi, The iLady Morven and Mandy are superbly drawn . . . a sensitive and often beautifully written novel - Jake Kerridge, Daily Telegraph