Born within the same twelve months, Mary and Fern Piper are ‘Irish twins’ as their mother proudly declares. But when their father leaves home and they move to a new village, the girls encounter another pair of almost-twins – the Beak brothers. When Jim Beak marries her sister, Fern thinks it’s only a matter of time before she in turn marries his brother – but suddenly the sister’s symmetry of lives is broken beyond repair.

Susan Hill has been a professional writer for over 50 years. Her books have won the Whitbread, and John Llewellyn Prizes, and the W. Somerset Maugham Award and been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Her novels include Strange Meeting, I`m the King of the Castle and A Kind Man, and she has also published autobiography and collections of short stories. Her ghost story, The Woman in Black, has been running in London’s West End since 1988. She is the author of three best-selling Kindle Singles – Crystal, Hunger, and Printer’s Devil Court.

Susan Hill is married with two adult daughters and lives in North Norfolk.