Name: Notes on a Scandal
Rating: 3.7 (5 reviews)
ISBN: 9780241954553

Zoe Heller

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Heller's stirring novel that chronicles the friendship between two schoolteachers is now a major motion picture from Fox Searchlight, starring Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench.

Notes on a Scandal

Grace McCarter

‘No, I know I’m not old. But it is too late. It always was. A few years back, I became terribly righteous and angry about everything I thought I’d sacrificed for my family. I had this idea that if only I hadn't met Richard, and buried myself in marriage so young, I would have done brilliant things, made great sculpture, travelled the world, or whatever. One night I even told Richard that he had “deadened my imagination”. God! And eventually, Richard got so bored with my complaining that he renovated the basement and turned it into a studio for me. He worked out a new timetab]e with the babysitter and everything, just so that I could have three afternoons a week without Ben. He took a lot of trouble and it cost a lot of money which we couldn't afford... And you know what? After all that, I still didn't do anything really. I mean, I made some very pretty plates. I even made a few sculptures. But they weren't any good. Mostly, I watched daytime soap opera and took naps.’ She laughed. ‘It turns out that Richard and the kids hadn't been stopping me from doing anything. Quite the reverse. Marriage, for me, has been a wonderful cover-up for my fundamental lack of drive.'

Josephine Cammarano

Being in love is a condition, isn’t it? It’s like being depressed. Or like being in a cult. You are basically under water - people can talk to you about life on dry land, but it doesn’t really mean anything…

Zoë Heller

When the new teacher first arrives, Barbara immediately senses that this woman will be different from the rest of her staff-room colleagues. But Barbara is not the only one to feel that Sheba is special, and before too long Sheba is involved in an illicit affair with a pupil. Barbara finds the relationship abhorrent, of course, but she is the only adult in whom Sheba can properly confide. So when the liaison is found out and Sheba's life falls apart, Barbara is there...

Georgie Wishart

Anita McAndrew

From the first day that the beguiling Sheba Hart joins the staff of St George's, history teacher Barbara Covett is convinced that she has found a kindred spirit. Barbara's loyalty to her new friend is passionate and unstinting and when Sheba is discovered to be having an illicit affair with one of her young pupils. Barbara quickly elects herself as Sheba's chief defender. But all is not as it first seems in this dark story and, as Sheba will soon discover, a friend can be just as treacherous as any lover.

Notes on a Scandal

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