A Wreath Of Roses (Virago Modern Classics) - Softcover

Elizabeth Taylor's darkest novel . . . She writes with a sensuous richness of language that draws the reader down the most shadowy paths . . . Extremely beguiling. Taylor makes the living moment present, touchable, disturbing, enchanting (Helen Dunmore)

Taylor is a fearsome writer, ruthless in her examination of solitude, and a sparkling chronicler of ordinary lives (DAILY TELEGRAPH)

Taylor's marvellous, dark novel of 1949 ... The writing is so perfectly pitched that one almost resents becoming aware of the novel's elegant structure unfolding itself towards completion (Guardian)

Elizabeth Taylor is finally being recognised as an important British author: an author of great subtlety, great compassion and great depth. As a reader, I have found huge pleasure in returning to Taylor's novels and short stories many times over. As a writer I've returned to her too - in awe of her achievements, and trying to work out how she does it (Sarah Waters)

Spending the holiday with friends, as she has for many years, Camilla finds that their private absorptions - Frances with her painting and Liz with her baby - seem to exclude her from the gossipy intimacies of previous summers. Anxious that she will remain encased in her solitary life as a school secretary, and perhaps to spite of her friends, Camilla steps into an unlikely liaison with Richard Elton, a handsome, assured - and dangerous - liar.