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Seven Lean Years (1961) was Celia Fremlin’s third novel of suspense. Its protagonist is Ellen Fortescue, engaged to be married, but oddly uneasy about her approaching wedding. Her fiance Leonard is a man of varying moods, most combustibly where the subject of his stepmother Laura is concerned. Ellen is inclined to a kinder view; but then the woman Ellen calls ‘Cousin Laura’ does have a complicated history with the Fortescue family…
‘Fremlin wraps up her little mystery cunningly in this accomplished thriller-chiller of a book.’ Sunday Times
‘Fremlin has a quite extraordinary ability for imbuing the normal with intimations of doom-to-come. And when she begins to develop her elegantly horrible climax, the shivers chase each other down one’s spine.’ Birmingham Post
‘Celia Fremlin is about our best hope to compete with the American intelligent superior suspense school.’ Observer
Celia Fremlin (1914–2009) was born in Kent and spent her childhood in Hertfordshire, before studying at Oxford (whilst working as a charwoman). During World War Two, she served as an air-raid warden before becoming involved with the Mass Observation Project, collaborating on a study of women workers, War Factory. In 1942 she married Elia Goller, moved to Hampstead and had…
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Celia Fremlin was a prolific English writer of prize-winning, spine-chilling mysteries from the 1950s to 1990s. Celebrated by the most …
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