This intoxicating novel stands on its own, while forming a triumphant conclusion to A. S. Byatt's great quartet depicting the clashing forces in English life from the early 1950s to 1970. While Frederica falls almost by accident into a career in television in London, tumultuous events in her home county of Yorkshire threaten to change her life, and those of the people she loves. Through her wayward, lovingly-drawn characters and breath-taking twists of plot, Byatt illuminates the effervescence of the 1960s - both its excitements and its dangers - as no one has done before. Magical and thought-provoking, and with spine-chilling moments, "A Whistling Woman" is the ultimate novel of ideas made flesh - gloriously sensual, sexy and scary, bursting with ideas, and wonderful humanity.