Fay Weldon’s thought-provoking portrayal of the shifting roles and personalities of one woman as she journeys from childhood to adulthood.

Abandoned by her father, raised by a mad mother and a half-mad sister, Praxis Duveen is a master of the art of survival. Her life, indeed, has been full: two marriages, both unsuccessful; a brief but profitable career as a prostitute; a little dabbling in incest; a mercy killing; and an inadvertent reign as both apostle and victim of the women’s movement.

Shortlisted
The Booker Prize 1979
Published by
Hodder & Stoughton
Publication date
Fay Weldon

Fay Weldon

About the Author

Fay Weldon was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1979, and as chair of judges in 1983 her speech was one of the biggest bombshell moments in the prize's history. Her views on how badly publishers treated their writers were found so aggravating by one publisher that he walked over and punched her agent, Giles Gordon.
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