Dancing Backwards

Dancing Backwards
Salley Vickers

The long-awaited new novel from Salley Vickers, bestselling and much-loved author of Miss Garnet's Angel and The Other Side of You.Violet Hetherington has taken the rash step of joining a transatlantic cruise ship to New York to visit Edwin, an old friend. As she makes the six day crossing, she relives the traumatic events that led to her losing Edwin's friendship, and abandoning her career as a poet, for the safety of marriage and domesticity.Despite her natural reserve, she meets a rich variety of passengers travelling with her, who affect her understanding of her own past. Most significantly, she meets Dino, the dance host, whose motives in befriending Vi are shady, but who teaches her to ballroom dance - and inadvertently helps her to recover from her past.Moving between the late sixties and the present day, Dancing Backwards is written with the lightness of touch and psychological insight which characterise Salley Vickers' acclaimed work. This bittersweet novel is subtle, poignant and wonderfully entertaining.

Dancing Backwards

Salley Vickers

FOURTH ESTATE • London

for Rosie & Co. a birthday book

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me) it’s always ourselves we find in the sea

e e cummings

Table of Contents

Cover Page (#u83bdfa05-79a2-5366-be91-7ddae6e5f0e8)

Title Page (#uc2ba962f-3904-5896-aae4-4e8e5d356556)

Dedication (#u1106d925-45d1-55e2-a2fd-73990912b0a6)

Epigraph (#u6f0db6f0-7e13-5f95-b80c-077c10e8a9f7)

First Day (#u6f815062-8d91-5c33-bb1d-c725da44cd3f)

1 (#u0d0b5bcb-66b3-59de-a4c4-8ed99af0f635)

Second Day (#u8da54d00-3d04-5b40-a6a5-3f4391f9011b)

2 (#uc09dc44d-e1e7-5a07-863f-8ecf51c5d23b)

3 (#u5d4e3d72-05a5-5bd6-9c4e-db92464d8bf5)

4 (#ue57ac2dd-90da-5063-b01e-312d0043022d)

5 (#u8f6d2f5b-65f4-55af-8d38-4a534df75a1b)

6 (#u9c69ddef-80ce-5018-a3e0-d0420ea63eb9)

Third Day (#u726e98ba-25e9-5277-ab51-016f90aa626b)

7 (#ue6cae1c5-b559-5ef3-bb15-cce20bb89292)

8 (#ub1b6cd1d-10d7-576d-a95d-83a47c7e2262)

9 (#litres_trial_promo)

10 (#litres_trial_promo)

11 (#litres_trial_promo)

12 (#litres_trial_promo)

13 (#litres_trial_promo)

14 (#litres_trial_promo)

15 (#litres_trial_promo)

Fourth Day (#litres_trial_promo)

16 (#litres_trial_promo)

17 (#litres_trial_promo)

18 (#litres_trial_promo)

19 (#litres_trial_promo)

20 (#litres_trial_promo)

21 (#litres_trial_promo)

22 (#litres_trial_promo)

23 (#litres_trial_promo)

24 (#litres_trial_promo)

Fifth Day (#litres_trial_promo)

25 (#litres_trial_promo)

26 (#litres_trial_promo)

27 (#litres_trial_promo)

28 (#litres_trial_promo)

29 (#litres_trial_promo)

Sixth Day (#litres_trial_promo)

30 (#litres_trial_promo)

Comic Turn (#litres_trial_promo)