MRS S

In an elite English boarding school where the girls kiss the marble statue of the famous dead author who used to walk the halls, a young Australian woman arrives to take up the antiquated role of ‘matron’. Within this landscape of immense privilege, in which the girls can sense the slightest weakness in those around them, she finds herself unsure of her role, her accent and her body.

That is until she meets Mrs S, the headmaster’s wife, a woman who is her polar opposite: assured, sophisticated, a paragon of femininity. Over the course of a long, restless heatwave, the matron finds herself irresistibly drawn ever closer into Mrs S’s world and their unspoken desire blooms into an illicit affair of electric intensity. But, as the summer begins to fade, both women know that a choice must be made.

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‘The intense physicality of the novel’s emotions and its stylish, stripped-back prose make for an arresting pairing’
Observer

‘Atmospheric and daring’
Guardian

‘There’s nothing else like it out there’
The Times

‘Bold and beautiful… Desire crackles through these pages like fire’
Telegraph

‘Entirely captivating’
New York Times

‘Reading Mrs S is a delicious experience’
Rupert Thomson, author of Never Anyone But You