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"I will remove the heart of stone "
within you, recited the priest, 
"and give you a heart of flesh instead."

Abandoned by God and her husband,
the twin props of her existence,
Morna Gordon has tried to live her life
through her mother and daughter,
both immersed in crises of their own.
But the priest's words stir something
in her soul, and meeting David
- a man who believes passionately in
souls - stirs something more profound.



Emerging from her anger and bewilderment,
she embarks on a voyage of self-discovery,
travelling first to California and undergoing
a series of extraordinary experiences which
culminate in Disneyland, "the happiest
place on earth" - though not for her.
Disoriented, she flees to a remote island
in the Hebrides where David, historian
and almost-virgin, is working on the
life of a seventh-century saint. Intrigued
by the saint's extremes of self-denial
(rolling in beds of stinging nettles to control
his lust, or sleeping on bare rock), she helps
David with the book, and their shared
scholarship develops into
fumbling but intoxicating love.

The novel also explores the lives of Morna's
mother and daughter, charting Bea's
private crisis of faith and Chris's stormy
journey to maturity. Complex ties
and tensions bind these three generations
of women, all of whom suffer a "sea change".

The Stillness The Dancing is full of contrasts
- switching boldly from humour to tragedy,
from full-frontal sex to mystic vision, and
juxtaposing the grab-all twentieth century
with the hairshirt idealism of the
Age of the Saints.

A questing novel, probing every pain-filled
human part . . . Brave, honest and clever.
Books and Bookmen

Perriam is bursting with ideas about sex, death, grief, celibacy, the problems of old age, of guilt, of mother-daughter relationships. The problems of women of all ages are described in a flexible lucid style, while humour and exuberance help to make this novel hugely enjoyable.
Irish Times

An excellent novel which does not flinch from the grave and universal subject of death, yet manages intimacy and scale at once. The wild and bitter comedy of life in America contrasts with the almost poetic purity of life on a Scottish island. This novel is about the utterly demanding nature of real love which can force a person through darkness into light. Perriam's writing is as rewarding as her theme. Bel Mooney, Cosmopolitan

"In this novel I managed to exorcise some of the demons from my past, venting my anger on the guilt-obsessed regimes of many old-style Catholic schools. Yet I share David's fascination with the golden age of Celtic Christianity, which produced a wealth of art and scholarship, and with the courageous monks and saints who crossed dangerous seas in tiny boats to convert the pagan tribes."