Taylor, E: Angel: Virago Modern Classics

'Quietly and devastatingly amusing' Hilary Mantel

Fifteen-year-old Angel knows she is different, that she is destined to become a wealthy, famous author. Escaping the dreariness of her provincial life, she locks herself in her room, pouring all her fantasies on to the page.

After reading The Lady Irania, the publishers are certain it will be a success, in spite of - or perhaps because of - its overblown style. But they are curious about who could have written such a book: 'Angelica Deverell is too good a name to be true . . . she might be an old man. It would be an amusing variation. You are expecting to meet Mary Anne Evans and in walks George Eliot twirling his moustache.' So nothing can prepare them for the pale young woman who enters the room, with not a seed of irony or a grain of humour in her soul.

'One of Taylor's sharpest and funniest works' New York Times

'Marvellous . . . One of the most moving books I've read for a long time, as well as one of the funniest' Sam Jordison, Guardian