Circles of Deceit
Synopsis
This is a story about lies and truths and about a painter, a copyist, who paints modern versions of Old Masters and is ‘bothered by bills and artistic conscience in about equal measure … susceptible to, bullied and badgered by women.’ Major figures on the foreground of his crowded life canvas are Clio, his child-bride and her young boy; Helen, his first wife who left him, badly, but never really separates; and his mother who observes it all with a splendidly caustic humour. In the background, always, is his own silent son.
Author Biography
Nina Bawden was born in London in 1925. She is the author of over 40 novels; 23 for adults and 19 for children. Several of her novels for children have become contemporary classics, notably Carrie’s War and The Peppermint Pig. Her adult work includes the Booker shortlisted Circles of Deceit and Family Money. She is currently writing a book that draws on her experience of the Potters Bar rail disaster of May 2002, in which her husband of 48 years died. This tragic episode also inspired the recent David Hare play, The Permanent Way, in which Nina Bawden featured as one of the characters. She wrote Dear Austen, an address to her late husband, a former managing director of the BBC World Service.
