'I am a reading girl, with a pale face, and glasses. People who become enthralled by the world of books, as I am, are often thought to have dull lives, but I feel that my own life is made of the stuff of myth. Or anyway, I intend to make it so. So this is my story. It will be about birth + death and love + sex. I will make it something after my own heart, tender and dark, a little candlelight novel, started this late summer night...'

Joanne Horniman's characters live and breathe and find their way into your imagination to make you look at life afresh.

'Quietly breathtaking...I love it.' Phoebe Lines, 18

'A collection of delicious stolen moments.' Kate O'Donnell, 24