A Painted Smile

Di Porteous, from the much-acclaimed Gold Digger and Casting the First Stone, is back at work making the world - or her corner of it - right, with the help of her close circle of friends. Frances Fyfield is a brilliant writer who gathers such praise as 'A novel of character in which fully realised protagonists are developed with a skill approaching that of such writers as Iris Murdoch...Her understanding of the way human beings behave when jealousy and resentment power their actions remains as insightful as ever'.