Stevie is Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at Swansea University. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Fellow of the Welsh Academy. She has published widely in the fields of fiction, literary criticism, biography and popular history. Her first novel, Boy Blue, won the Fawcett Society Book Prize for 1987. This was followed by eleven further novels, of which The Web of Belonging (1997) was short-listed for the Portico Prize and the Arts Council of Wales Book of the Year. It was adapted as a Channel 4 television film written by Alan Plater, starring Brenda Blethyn, Kevin Whately and Anna Massie. The Element of Water (2001) was long-listed for the Booker and Orange Prizes and won the Arts Council of Wales Book of the Year. Kith & Kin was short-listed for the Orange Prize. Into Suez (2010), set in the years leading up to the ‘Suez Crisis’ of 1956, was followed by Awakening in 2013 and a novella, Equivocator, in 2016.
ONE Lily’s in the window-seat in pyjamas, legs tucked under, the grubby soles of her feet showing. She offers the wraith of a smile. When Aidan stoops to kiss her, Lily puts up her mouth and passively accepts his early-morning kiss. Aidan takes note. Lily’s moods govern the atmosphere in the household;…
