At Mrs Lippincote's

The debut novel from Elizabeth Taylor - shortlisted for the Booker Prize

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Mrs Lippincotes house, with its mahogany furniture and yellowing photographs, stands as a reminder of all the certainties that have vanished with the advent of war. Temporarily, this is home for Julia, who has joined her husband Roddy at the behest of the RAF. Although she can accept the pomposities of service life, Julias honesty and sense of humour prevent her from taking her role as seriously as her husband, that leader of men, might wish; for Roddy, merely love cannot suffice - he needs homage as well as admiration. And Julia, while she may be a most unsatisfactory officers wife, is certainly no hypocrite.

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Her stories remain with one, indelibly, as though they had been some turning-point in ones own experienceElizabeth Bowen

No writer has described the English middle classes with more gently devastating accuracyRebecca Abrams, Spectator

A Game of Hide and Seek showcases much of what makes Taylor a great novelist: piercing insight, a keen wit and a genuine sense of feeling for her charactersElizabeth Day, Guardian