Hoping for a happy ending

1:25pm Thursday 7th February 2008

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Atmospheric, claustrophobic and, as it reaches its climax, unputdownable, Affinity by Sarah Waters is the story of Margaret Prior.

Aged almost 30, she has seen the love of her life taken from her by her brother, has survived a suicide attempt made in the aftermath of her beloved father's death and become a prison visitor at the forbidding Millbank as part of her rehabilitation.

At Millbank, Margaret meets the enigmatic spiritualist Selina Dawes - imprisoned for fraud and assault - and is drawn to her as a moth to a flame.

The fog that swirls around the Thames as Margaret travels between her home in Cheyne Walk and the prison comes to be as much metaphorical as it is real, the truth about Selina Dawes as obscure as any objects hidden by the fog.

The repression of Margaret's apparently privileged life is echoed in the physical repression of the inmates of Millbank, a dark, forbidding and claustrophobic place, and, as Margaret's desperation becomes increasingly fevered, you will willingly suspend your disbelief and pray for a happy ending.

A fascinating glimpse into the world of Victorian spiritualism, Affinity has a little of everything - historical novel, love story, spooky thriller - and a fabulous twist in the tail.

Affinity is Sarah Waters' second novel, published in May 1999.

Things to think about

How well does the device of two diaries to tell the story work?

Do you think the description of the prison too detailed or essential to the sense of time, place and repression?

Seances and spirit mediums like Selina were common in the Victorian age. What was it about the times that allowed them to flourish?

How strongly did you believe in Selina and her abilities?

Affinity is set, like Fingersmith and Tipping the Velvet, in the 19th century and again deals with the love that dare not speak its name', but is it a predominant theme?

About the author

Sarah Waters' first novel, Tipping the Velvet, won a 1999 Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for the Mail on Sunday/John Llewelyn Rhys Prize, and adapted by Andrew Davies for the BBC in 2002.

She was inspired to write it while working on her PhD thesis on lesbian historical fiction that underlined the inadequacies and potential of the contemporary lesbian historical genre.

For Affinity, Sarah was awarded the Somerset Maugham Prize and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, as well being runner-up for the Welsh Book of the Year Award, all in 2000. Affinity has also been shortlisted for the Mail on Sunday/John Llewelyn Rhys Prize.

Her third novel, Fingersmith, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize 2002 and for the Man Booker Prize 2002. It won the CWA Historical Dagger prize for historical crime fiction and was picked more than any other novel as a Book of the Year 2002. It, too, was dramatised for BBC TV, adapted by Peter Ransley.

In January 2003, Sarah Waters was named as one of Granta's 20 Best of Young British Writers. She is recipient of the South Bank Award for Literature 2003 and was named Author of the Year at the 2003 British Book Awards. Her fourth novel, The Night Watch, which saw her move from the 19th century to the 1940s, was published to critical acclaim in February 2006.

How to order

Affinity RRP £7.99, offer price £7.59 Fingersmith RRP £7.99, offer price £7.59 The Night Watch RRP £7.99, offer price £7.59 Tipping the Velvet RRP £7.99, offer price £7.59 To order any of the titles listed, call the Hereford Times Bookshop on 08700 713317 or send your cheque/postal order made payable to Hereford Times Bookshop to: Hereford Times Bookshop, PO Box 60, Helston, TR13 0TP. Please allow seven to 10 working days for delivery. All titles supplied subject to publisher availability.