From the author of The Gustav Sonata When Erica March composes herself to die in a cupboard, she knows that Ralph Pears will find her. For at the age of 87, she had told the young journalist the richly colourful story of her life as novelist, political activist and, above all, lover, from childhood in Suffolk, Paris between the wars, to oblivion in post-war London. At the end of Ralph's patient probings only one secret remains: the mystery inside one constant object in her life - her cupboard. Over a million Rose Tremain books sold `A writer of exceptional talent ... Tremain is a writer who understands every emotion' Independent I `There are few writers out there with the dexterity or emotional intelligence to rival that of the great Rose Tremain' Irish Times `Tremain has the painterly genius of an Old Master, and she uses it to stunning effect' The Times 'Rose Tremain is one of the very finest British novelists' Salman Rushdie `Tremain is a writer of exemplary vision and particularity. The fictional world is rendered with extraordinary vividness' Marcel Theroux, Guardian