Playing with the Grown-ups - Tapa dura

Praise for The Man With The Dancing Eyes: 'I am enchanted by everything - its spirit, Sophie's voice, which is pitched for perfection somewhere in the midst of The Dud Avocado, I Capture the Castle and Eloise at the Plaza. ' Raffaella Barker 'A poetic love story accompanied by Annie Morris' evocative drawings ... part Love in a Cold Climate, part Edith Sitwell and part Roald Dahl.' Vogue 'A wonderfully romantic modern-day fairytale.' Heat 'A modern-day romance for grown-ups.' Cosmopolitan

To Kitty, growing up at Hay House, surrounded by bluebell woods and doting relations, is heaven. But for her mother, the restless Marina, a silver-eyed beauty who paints and weeps with alacrity, Hay cannot provide the novelty or excitement she so craves. Swami-ji, Marina's guru, sees her future in New York, and so the family is scooped up and relocated, leaving Kitty exiled in a colourless boarding school. Reprieve comes in the form of the guru's summons to the ashram, but then, just as Kitty is approaching enlightenment, they are off again, leaving everything behind to come back to an England that is fast and unfamiliar. This time no God, man or martini can staunch Marina's hunger for a happiness that proves all too elusive. And Kitty, turning fourteen, must choose: whether to play dangerous games with the grown-ups or to finally put herself first. Witty, lyrical and heartbreaking, Playing with the Grown-ups is a modern coming-of-age story that heralds the arrival of a unique new talent.