Friendship has always been very important in my life and this is a book about a deep friendship between three women. They come from very different backgrounds, in the US, Ireland and England but they meet in their twenties and immediately strike an unbreakable bond. The story covers forty years, through marriage, children work, divorce, tragedy and love. When the book was published I wrote a few articles and was interviewed widely about friendship and, at one point, I found myself stating that friendship can often be more important and certainly more long-lasting than love. I still think there’s a good deal of truth in that. The novel wasn’t easy to write. I was dealing with events such as the reaction to the Vietnam war in New York during the Sixties or the bombing in Ireland during the Eighties. I remembered my own experiences – I lived in NY at that time – but I also needed to check out my facts and add to my own memories.

‘Vivid, dramatic — a narrative of striking exuberance and generosity.’ The Times

‘The characters are so superbly drawn, so real, that you are reminded of the skill of the female novelists of the 19th century… its brilliance lies in a combination of the author’s subtle observations… and the absence of sentimentality.’ Daily Telegraph

• 
  A Woman's Age
• Friendship
• 
  Lies and Loyalties
• 
  The Space Between