Broken Places

Wendy Perriam has been writing since the age of five, completing her first 'novel' at eleven. Expelled from boarding school for heresy, she escaped to Oxford, where she read History and also trod the boards. She now divides her time between teaching and writing. Her 16 novels and 6 short-story collections boldly mix sex, religion and humour, and have been acclaimed for their psychological insight and their power to disturb, divert and shock. Perriam feels that her many conflicting life experiences - strict convent-school discipline and swinging-sixties wildness, marriage and divorce, infertility and motherhood - have shaped her as a writer. 'Writing allows for shadow-selves. I'm both the staid conformist matron and the slag; the well-organised author toiling at her desk and the madwoman shrieking in a straitjacket'.

'Broken Places is a great and adventurous read. The main theme of the novel - that life is fundamentally unfair - is explored with verve, energy, relish and humour. Perriam can be very, very funny' - Fay Weldon 'Perriam writes brilliantly about fear and grief, and the lives of children in care, but she is also savagely, hilariously funny about everything to do with sex.' - The Times 'Adrian Mole with more detail' - Wendy Holden, Daily Mail