Their father, whose mental state always has been slightly precarious, is committed to an asylum in the country.

Their mother creates a public outcry, abandoning her family for a bohemian life on the Continent. Catherine and Rob Allen, siblings two years apart, grow up in a world of shameful secrets. Unsettling love and stifled horror create and then destroy the claustrophobic world of this lush, literary gothic set in turn-of-the-century England. 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title.

She is also a poet, children's novelist and short-story writer. Dunmore is one of the finest English writers' Daily Mail 'A hugely involving story which often stops you in your tracks with the beauty of its writing' Observer 'An electrifying and original talent, a writer whose style is characterized by a lyrical, dreamy intensity' Guardian Helen Dunmore has published eleven novels with Penguin: Zennor in Darkness, which won the McKitterick Prize Burning Bright A Spell of Winter, which won the Orange Prize Talking to the Dead Your Blue-Eyed Boy With Your Crooked Heart The Siege, which was shortlisted for the 2001 Whitbread Novel of the Year Award and for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2002 Mourning Ruby House of Orphan Counting the Stars and The Betrayal, which was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2010. 'A marvellous novel about forbidden passions and the terrible consequences of thwarted love. But they are not as alone in the house as they believe. As time passes, their sibling love deepens and crosses into forbidden territory. Incarcerated in the enormous country house of their grandfather - 'the man from nowhere' - they create a refuge against their family's dark secrets, and against the outside world as it moves towards the First World War. Catherine and her brother, Rob, don't know why they have been abandoned by their parents. Bestselling author Helen Dunmore's third novel, A Spell of Winter won the 1996 Orange Prize.

A Spell of Winter by Helen Dunmore