**** As read on BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime ****

Luke is a young playwright: intense, magnetic and hungry for experience. Fleeing a disastrous upbringing in the North East he arrives in London and shares a flat with Paul, an aspiring producer, and beautiful, fiery Leigh. 

The three of them set up a radical theatre company, their friendship forged in rehearsal rooms above pubs, candlelit power cuts, and smoky late-night parties, part of a thrilling new generation of writers, directors and rising voices.

When Nina, a fragile actress, strays towards their group, Luke recognises a damaged soul and the balance between the friends is threatened. Luke is torn between loyalty, desire and his own painful past, until everything he values, even the promise of the future, is in danger. Suddenly the fallout threatens to be immense.

Number one bestseller Sadie Jones won the Costa First Novel Award with her debutThe Outcast ('Riveting', Lionel Shriver; 'Devastatingly good',Daily Mail; 'Gripping', Harper's Bazaar). It was also shortlisted for the Orange Prize and was a Richard and Judy Summer Reads pick. Her second novel,Small Wars ('Outstanding', The Times; 'Compelling', Daily Telegraph; 'One of the best books about the English at war ever', Joel Morris) was longlisted for the Orange Prize and her third, The Uninvited Guests was described by theFinancial Times as 'dazzlingly well-written... a midsummer night's dream of a book... Unforgettable'. She lives with her family in London.