"Wendy Perriam is one of our most consistent, and most consistently under-rated,
authors. She never features in the best-seller lists or comes into contention for
literary prizes. But she rarely fails to deliver the goods; and she does so again here,
in a novel of complexity and mounting excitement.

The plot abounds in the kind of moral conundrum that keeps Catholic priests in
business, and the characterisation is excellent throughout. Perriam has a fine sense
of emotional drama: whole scenes are driven by a sudden fit of lust, jealousy, anger,
taking a character in its grip ... a highly professional effort."

Sunday Telegraph

"Wendy Perriam is not afraid of big themes."

Indeed, she seems as a writer to revel in them. Though the plots and locations of her
novels are small-scale – she is an inveterate chronicler of English suburban angst –
she is always painting on a wider canvas. She almost rushes to embrace and dissect
contemporary vices such as guilt, nostalgia, rebirth and what the Italians call menefregismo,
the who-gives-a-toss-about-anyone-else approach to life.

"Lying" fits the blueprint and takes as its big theme the deceit and hypocrisy that underpin
otherwise idyllic relationships, and which Perriam paints as permeating our culture and
institutions ... [Alison]tumbles into a series of tangled affairs, recounted with Perriam's
other trademark: a graphic frankness and breathless gusto.

This is undoubtedly a deeply personal novel ... [Perriam] was told that she would never
have children before going on to have what she regards as a 'miracle baby'. This element of
autobiography, though carefully enmeshed with the plot and never self-indulgent, makes
for some of "Lying's" most affecting and authoritative sections.

As ever, the tragedy is to some extent mitigated by a fine line in black humour; Perriam
can be wickedly funny with her dialogue, in her off-the-cuff social observations and in
sketching minor characters and their mannerisms.

An accomplished and intelligent novel by a too often overlooked novelist who wears
her seriousness of purpose lightly."

Independent

"Perfect holiday reading"

"Wendy Perriam was always a good writer. . . She would doubtless have remained a good writer
but for a traumatic experience that turned her into an outstanding one, regarded by many literary
buffs as one of the finest English authors of the century.

The only positive outcome of [her loss of faith] was the effect it had on her writing.
It's hard to think of another living author with such searing powers of description
and such devastating insight into human behaviour.

Her first 13 novels were outstanding, but so powerful and provocative one felt wrung out
after reading them. "Lying" is just as brilliant but with a lighter touch and an engrossing
quality that makes it perfect holiday reading."

Surrey Comet

"A pleasure to read from start to finish, "Lying" should be the one novel everyone reads this year."

"With Lying, Wendy Perriam returns to brilliant form, with a story that is fast-paced,
thought-provoking and original . . . An ordinary love story? Far from it . . .

The opening chapters of the novel do several things very well indeed. Perriam supplies us with
characters who are utterly believable and who furthermore command our sympathy.
Alison is a heroine in the great tradition of the eighteenth century, and we feel for her
as she teeters through the pitfalls of trying to win James's love, treading as she does
with reckless abandon close to the cliff edge of social embarrassment
(an every-present reality for the English) and sailing close to the shoals of a religious
experience of which she is entirely ignorant. We have all been there: the things we do
for love indeed. These chapters are funny, wise, well-observed and above all true.

But Perriam takes the story further, not content to give us simply a Catholic version of the
Bridget Jones fable. Both Alison and James are destined to endure something of a dark
night of the soul. Here too our author takes us one step beyond the usual boundary of the novel,
which, ever since Jane Austen, has tended to end with the heroine's wedding.

Married life is not a bed of roses, and rarely have I read of marital difficulties so delicately
and convincingly expounded. To write about people falling in love is to tread a well-trod
literary path; to write about the trials that can destroy love is a much harder task, and
Perriam rises to the challenge superbly. Once again, we see characters on the cliff edge,
this time falling off, pushed over into irrational and imprudent behaviour by the smallest things.
But we do not lose patience with them, neither do they ever lose our sympathy,
for the reader knows – if he has any humility, that is – that the tiniest irritant can
cause a huge catastrophe. Perriam is a very human writer – she understands how
people make mistakes, for she has both wit and compassion, two qualities that are
often mutually exclusive."

The Tablet

Wendy Perriam talks about "Lying"

"Perriam must be a strong contender for Britain's most underrated novelist." Daily Telegraph "