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The Birthday Present
  • Published: 1 June 2009
  • ISBN: 9780141036212
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 288
  • RRP: $39.99
Categories:

The Birthday Present

Formats & editions
EBook
1 June 2009
Paperback
1 June 2009
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A triumphant return to form - one of Barbara Vine's best novels to date

It's late spring of 1990 and a love affair is flourishing: between Ivor Tesham, a thirty-three year old rising star of Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government, and Hebe Furnal, a stunning North London housewife stuck in a dull marriage. What excitement Hebe lacks at home, however, is amply compensated for by the well-bred and intensely attractive Tesham - an ardent womanizer and ambitious politican.

On the eve of her twenty-eighth birthday, Tesham decides to give Hebe a present to remember: something far more memorable than, say, the costly string of pearls he's already lavished upon her. Involving a fashionable new practice known as 'adventure sex', a man arranges for his unsuspecting but otherwise willing girlfriend to be snatched from the street, bound and gagged, and delivered to him at a mutually agreed venue ...

Set amidst an age of IRA bombings, the first Gulf War, and sleazy politics, The Birthday Present is the gripping story of a fall from grace, and of a man who carries within him all the hypocrisy, greed and self-obsession of a troubled era.
  • Published: 1 June 2009
  • ISBN: 9780141036212
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 288
  • RRP: $39.99
Categories:

About the author

Barbara Vine

Barbara Vine was the pen-name of Ruth Rendell, and Viking published all of her books under that name. Rendell was an exceptional crime writer, with worldwide sales of approximately 20 million copies, and regular Sunday Times bestsellers. Rendell won numerous awards, including the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger for 1976's best crime novel with A Demon in My View, a Gold Dagger award for Live Flesh in 1986, and the Sunday Times Literary Award in 1990. In 2013 she was awarded the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for sustained excellence in crime writing. In 1996 she was awarded the CBE and in 1997 became a Life Peer. Ruth Rendell died in May 2015.
BV

Also by Barbara Vine

The Child's Child
No Night is Too Long
King Solomon's Carpet
The Chimney Sweeper's Boy
A Dark-Adapted Eye
Asta's Book
A Fatal Inversion
See all

Praise for The Birthday Present

Slick

Financial Times

Again a great read from a master of the story-telling process

Irish Times

Packed with menace and the threat of exposure. One of Rendell's most complex plots.

The Independent

Her Barbara Vine novels allow [Ruth Rendell] to retain her title as Britain's pre-eminent psychological thriller. A suspenseful and chilling tale

The Observer

Characters are intensely imagined and far from the usual uncomplicated stereotypes of victims and perpetrators. An experience that is both fearful and satisfying

The Sunday Times

A strong creation

Telegraph.co.uk

Riveting and only too plausible account of the downfall of a politician. Brilliant narrative voice. An unsurpassed portrait of a character suffering from low self-esteem, mild paranoia and gradual mental deterioration.

The Daily Mail

Oddly exhilarating and liberating. Truly, Baroness Rendell of Babergh is an original talent.

The Evening Standard

The Rendell/Vine partnership has for years been producing consistently better work than most Booker winners put together

Ian Rankin

Barbara Vine is Ruth Rendell letting rip

Daily Telegraph

A superb and original writer

Amanda Craig, Express

Slick

Financial Times

Again a great read from a master of the story-telling process

Irish Times

Packed with menace and the threat of exposure. One of Rendell's most complex plots.

The Independent

Her Barbara Vine novels allow [Ruth Rendell] to retain her title as Britain's pre-eminent psychological thriller. A suspenseful and chilling tale

The Observer

Characters are intensely imagined and far from the usual uncomplicated stereotypes of victims and perpetrators. An experience that is both fearful and satisfying

The Sunday Times

A strong creation

Telegraph.co.uk

Riveting and only too plausible account of the downfall of a politician. Brilliant narrative voice. An unsurpassed portrait of a character suffering from low self-esteem, mild paranoia and gradual mental deterioration.

The Daily Mail

Oddly exhilarating and liberating. Truly, Baroness Rendell of Babergh is an original talent.

The Evening Standard