After the Party

'I always wanted to be friends with both my sisters. Perhaps that was the source, really, of all the troubles of my life...' 
 
It is the summer of 1938 and Phyllis Forrester has returned to England after years abroad. Moving into her sister's grand country house, she soon finds herself entangled in a new world of idealistic beliefs and seemingly innocent friendships. Fevered talk of another war infiltrates their small, privileged circle, giving way to a thrilling solution: a great and charismatic leader, who will restore England to its former glory. 
 
At a party hosted by her new friends, Phyllis lets down her guard for a single moment, with devastating consequences. Years later, Phyllis, alone and embittered, recounts the dramatic events which led to her imprisonment and changed the course of her life forever. 
 
'Wonderfully subtle and compelling' Linda Grant 
 
'Uncanny, evocative, atmospheric' Sunday Times 
 
'Connolly is a terrifically subtle writer... [she] slyly sweeps her readers into the period drama as tensions tauten between families and social classes' Daily Telegraph 
 
'Wonderful, tragicomic... beautifully researched' The Times

Profound and moving and completely original, with a storyline that is completely satisfying. It'll be one of those novels that stays in my mind forever... it's a work of art

I finished it in two days flat and I've never read anything quite like it. Everything about the book rings true, politically, psychologically, and in period detail, from the sunny beginnings to the grim end

A wonderfully subtle and interesting account of the Mosley women, with a compelling voice

Wonderful, tragicomic... beautifully researched

One of the best books published this year

Uncanny, evocative.... Connolly skilfully sets scenes in pared yet atmospheric prose

Connolly gives an object lesson in how to tell a story in a non-judgmental way.  The result is a brave, engrossing and unexpectedly moving novel

Polished and reflective... a salutary masterclass on the values that really matter

This historical novel is an absorbing, nuanced look at extremism dressed up with social niceties and class privilege, and is sure to resonate today

In her latest novel, Cressida Connolly expertly evokes a changing nation, and a woman whose life is altered forever

Connolly [is] an unerring storyteller who excels at both period and place

Connolly has tremendous fun with her posh characters' class-obsessed milieu, but the privations of Holloway Prison, with its rope-thick dust, bone-chilling cold and maggoty food, are equally sharply drawn

Deeply impressive.... quietly devastating tale of world affairs played out on an intimate scale

Connolly is a terrifically subtle writer... [she] slyly sweeps her readers into the period drama as tensions tauten between families and social classes

Extraordinary, gripping... Exquisitely written with lyricism and a stiletto-sharp and humorous pen, Connolly takes on a subject which resonates powerfully with current politics

Beautifully written... Connolly's perfect control of tone and detail makes this very compelling. Excellent

Connolly's research is immaculate... well-imagined

In pared yet atmospheric prose, Connolly skilfully evokes the scents of an English summer and hedonistic parties

Connolly has an ear for how people really speak. It's the gift of a proper writer

Cressida Connolly's flawless new novel After the Party, for all its darkness, seems suffused with the "soft, buttery" light of an English summer afternoon. But in June of 1938, infernal shadows lengthen. Ms. Connolly is a master, revealing character while sustaining an effect of lightness and ease. We follow Phyllis through an indolent prewar season beautifully conjured, often in heady, sensual detail. Ms. Connolly is too astute and compassionate a novelist to provide neat conclusions. The novel leaves us with the mysterious sense of having inhabited a time and a life whose emotional gravity holds us still.

'After the Party is an effortlessly lithe and subtle study of guilt, shame, repression and the banality of fascism. Connolly should be crowned in laurels and loaded with prizes.' Frances Wilson, The Oldie 
 
 
'Connolly expertly evokes a changing nation, and a woman whose life is altered forever' Vogue 
 
 
'[A] virtuoso novel' Telegraph Magazine 
 
 
'Connolly's novel achieves the rare feat of at once summoning that foreign country, the past, then returning us, uncomfortably, to a contemporary Britain with a burgeoning fatherland complex.' Will Self, Guardian 
 
 
 'A brave, engrossing and unexpectedly moving novel' Mail on Sunday 
 
 
'Chilling, thought-provoking' Spectator 
 
 
'An absorbing, nuanced look at extremism dressed up with social niceties and class privilege' Stylist

Cressida Connolly is a reviewer and journalist, who has written for Vogue, the Telegraph, the Spectator, the Guardian and numerous other publications. Cressida is the author of three books: The Happiest Days, which won the MacMillan/PEN Award, The Rare and the Beautiful and My Former Heart. Cressida is the daughter of writer Cyril Connolly. She lives in Worcestershire.

'Had it not been for my weakness, someone who is now dead could still be alive. That is what I believed and consequently lived with every day in prison.' 
 
It is the summer of 1938 and Phyllis Forrester has returned to England after years abroad. Moving into her sister's grand country house, she soon finds herself entangled in a new world of idealistic beliefs and seemingly innocent friendships. Fevered talk of another war infiltrates their small, privileged circle, giving way to a thrilling solution: a great and charismatic leader, who will restore England to its former glory. 
 
At a party hosted by her new friends, Phyllis lets down her guard for a single moment, with devastating consequences. Years later, Phyllis, alone and embittered, recounts the dramatic events which led to her imprisonment and changed the course of her life forever.

Cressida Connolly

A ravishing novel from the great family saga-teller Cressida Connolly and an honourable tribute to the past

Connolly's vivid characterisation, supple prose and striking imagery sweep you along, in an absorbing and affecting saga that uses one family's story to anatomise the different stages of grief

In recent British fiction I can think only of Tessa Hadley who rivals Connolly in exacting such intricate, compelling drama from close-knit families . . . I don't often wish a book were longer, but this one I did

Masterful . . . a joy to see it garnering the ecstatic reviews it deserves

Polly Samson, author of A Theatre for Dreamers

Moving [and] powerful . . . Connolly's vividly drawn characters grapple with trauma, unkindness and greed in an intriguing novel where past actions reverberate in the present

Connolly, like Anne Tyler and Tessa Hadley, is a master of fluidly shifting perspectives, a sharply witty observer of social class, and a champion of imaginative empathy

Bad Relations is an amazing achievement and one of the most satisfying books you're likely to read this year

Elegantly written, this subtle, satisfying, well-observed novel is a delight

Another fascinating, moving story from the author of After the Party

This clever novel set across three timelines tells the story of a family haunted by tragedy. A skilfully written, powerful drama

The plot is neat, tight and unexpected but the novel's deep satisfaction comes from Connolly's total immersion in historical atmosphere and profound understanding of human pain

A gripping story of love, loss and tragic betrayal

What if you could write a novel whose main plot points are a death in combat, a suicide and the breakdown of family relations, and make it beautiful? What if you dared not to show the grimmest bits, but let them happen off-stage, while using elegant, beautiful prose to paint the spaces around them? Cressida Connolly is that brave writer and Bad Relations is her latest masterpiece . . . ravishing

The characters in Bad Relations are so brilliantly real, so wonderfully compelling at their best, and at their worst, that I can't get them out of my head. A wonderful novel

A writer who seems able to peer directly into the human heart

Connolly is a terrifically subtle writer... [she] slyly sweeps her readers into the period drama as tensions tauten between families and social classes

Profound and moving and completely original, with a storyline that is completely satisfying. It'll be one of those novels that stays in my mind forever... it's a work of art

I finished it in two days flat and I've never read anything quite like it

A wonderfully subtle and interesting account of the Mosley women, with a compelling voice

On the battlefields of the Crimea, William Gale cradles the still-warm body of his brother. William's experience of war will bring about a change in him that will reverberate through his family over the next two centuries. 
In the 1970s, William's descendants invite Stephen, a distant relation, to stay in their house in the English countryside - but their golden summer entanglements will end in a shocking fall from grace. 
 
Half a century later, a confrontation between the surviving members of the family will culminate in a terrible reckoning.

Cressida Connolly

Praise for Bad Relations

A ravishing novel from the great family saga-teller Cressida Connolly and an honourable tribute to the past

Connolly's vivid characterisation, supple prose and striking imagery sweep you along, in an absorbing and affecting saga that uses one family's story to anatomise the different stages of grief

In recent British fiction I can think only of Tessa Hadley who rivals Connolly in exacting such intricate, compelling drama from close-knit families . . . I don't often wish a book were longer, but this one I did ...

A ravishing novel from the great family saga-teller Cressida Connolly and an honourable tribute to the past

Connolly's vivid characterisation, supple prose and striking imagery sweep you along, in an absorbing and affecting saga that uses one family's story to anatomise the different stages of grief

In recent British fiction I can think only of Tessa Hadley who rivals Connolly in exacting such intricate, compelling drama from close-knit families . . . I don't often wish a book were longer, but this one I did ...

A ravishing novel from the great family saga-teller Cressida Connolly and an honourable tribute to the past

Connolly's vivid characterisation, supple prose and striking imagery sweep you along, in an absorbing and affecting saga that uses one family's story to anatomise the different stages of grief

In recent British fiction I can think only of Tessa Hadley who rivals Connolly in exacting such intricate, compelling drama from close-knit families . . . I don't often wish a book were longer, but this one I did ...

Books by Cressida Connolly

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