C  O  U  P  L  I  N  G

It was all such a dreadful muddle.
How could she sleep with Max,
fantasise about Tony (and other
men as well), yet also want
Elizabeth, want her more than anyone?

Beattie's lover Max has given her a very
special birthday present - a weekend at 
England's most exclusive health farm. 
But if he had known what was to   
happen there, he would have bought     
her a diamond instead.     

For 30-year-old Beattie, who has always       
fancied men, suddenly finds herself      
attracted to a woman - a woman 20     
years older, cultured, privileged, a mother    
of four, a grandmother, even. Her initial   
infatuation erupts into a passion which  
threatens to take over her life as, 
desperately, she seeks admission into 
Elizabeth's inner sanctum - her work as a 
psychotherapist, her family, her very soul.

Perriam must be a strong contender for Britain's
most underrated novelist. One looks for her on the 
bestseller lists, one looks for her on the shortlists  
for literary prizes. This is not necessarily her best   
book, but it offers ample scope for her many talents.   
The narrative is sophisticated, the characterisation     
excellent and the dialogue delicious.      
Daily Telegraph        

. . . carefully laid out characters, comically chronicled          
sex and an acute knowledge of the rules           
of attraction, jealousy and obsession.          
Sunday Times         

It's Perriam on top - almost manic - form in this       
intelligent tale of lust and sexual bewilder-ment.     
Woman's Journal     

Perriam's novel is certainly not just for      
women, though one can't help feeling a      
certain guiltiness in reading it, as if peering       
into a forbidden enclosure. Perriam writes        
to shock; she is keen to tell us that she         
doesn't give two hoots for social           
conventions, and that she wants             
to destroy the imprisoning restrictions              
that govern women's lives.               
Catholic Herald               

Coupling confronts the delicate subject of women's erotic feelings for each other, and while writing the novel I talked to many apparently straight women, both married and single, who admitted that they had felt attracted to other women, or had one-off lesbian affairs. Whereas lesbianism as such has received a very high profile in the media recently, this aspect is much less talked about and often remains a guilty secret for those involved.

Beattie too feels guilty and cannot understand her passionate desire for Elizabeth. She longs to touch her body, kiss her breasts, marry her, merge with her - and, later in the book, she undergoes the highly charged experience of being "born" to Elizabeth: "the perfect baby cradled in its perfect mother's arms".

To make this scene authentic I submitted myself, like Beattie, to rebirthing - an American-style therapy described by enthusiasts as "Divine Orgasm", "pure bliss" and "a biological experience of God, more pleasurable than food or sex". Starting out highly sceptical, I was astonished at the power of the process, experiencing not pleasure but extremes of pain and panic as I struggled through my own traumatic "birth" (surrounded by fifty fellow rebirthees, sobbing and threshing in their blanket-cocoons on the floor). Next I tried Hot Tub Rebirthing, this time with a group of naked participants, and not a figleaf in sight! Like Beattie in the novel, I seemed to be "taken over", catapulted into a state of near-hysteria, which did - eventually - develop into bliss. I even watched grown men being bottle-fed to make up for their lack of infant nurturing.

Whether rebirthing is dangerous or ultimately therapeutic remains a vexed question - maybe a bit of both. In some ways it's like sex, because in the white heat of the moment you can act with a complete lack of inhibition and then return to reality and wonder how on earth it happened.

The novel also contrasts Elizabeth's privileged world with Beattie's impoverished one. I'm always fascinated by issues of class and wealth (having once been a single parent on benefit), and I wanted to make a point about the inequalities of genes and birth.

Yet Coupling is ultimately a story of redemption, as Beattie moves beyond jealous obsession and murderous rage to forgiveness and self-fulfilment.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FIRST TWO CHAPTERS OF "Coupling"