then let the barrier fall

Danielle, young, naďve and idealistic, embarks on her career as an actress, seeking the passion and fulfillment of both love and art, and is inexorably drawn to great drama - on stage and off. Ripe for every kind of experience, she falls passionately in love with a poet, fourteen years her senior, to whom she gives herself, body and soul. She sees him as a 'Greek god', until it transpires that he has a dark secret. Their love affair explodes around the theatre in Canterbury, and in a run-down cottage on the outskirts of town. But can she love him - and live with the fallout from his secret?What will happen if the barrier falls? An unexpected intrusion takes them, together and separately, to other places... The novel is a poetic exploration of obsessive first love: the passion and the ecstasy, the pain and despair. It is deeply erotic, complex and disturbing. It is also a spiritual odyssey... But will it bring redemption? Cover illustration by Pat Chester