From beyond the grave, a woman recounts the story of her life in this captivating novella by bestselling author Fay Weldon
From her lofty perch in heaven amid the GSWITS (Great Screen Writers in the Sky), Gabriella Sumpter prepares to tell the story of her life. Because, as she claims, there are no rules for fiction writing, she will begin with her death and conclude with her birth. Just three months dead, and buried in a custom-made white silk shift, Gabriella is proud of her liberated, unashamedly erotic past. She has few regrets as she talks about the men she has loved and lost, including her married lover, Timothy, and scorned Walter, who burned down her house in a jealous rage. She shares the intimate details of her earthly existence, the emotions she experienced at the moment of death, and the old friends she has since encountered in heaven. Set in the near future, The Rules of Life is a startlingly vivid novel from a captivating female voice.
“Fay Weldon is a national treasure.” —Literary Review “Weldon is a gifted tease of a writer.” —The Sunday Times “Prolific and provocative, Fay Weldon shines brightest in the league table of British women novelists.” —Time Out
Novelist, playwright, and screenwriter Fay Weldon was born in England, brought up in New Zealand, and returned to the United Kingdom when she was fifteen. She studied economics and psychology at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. She worked briefly for the Foreign Office in London, then as a journalist, and then as an advertising copywriter. She later gave up her career in advertising, and began to write fulltime. Her first novel, The Fat Woman’s Joke, was published in 1967. She was chair of the judges for the Booker Prize for fiction in 1983, and received an honorary doctorate from the University of St Andrews in 1990. In 2001, she was named a Commander of the British Empire. Weldon’s work includes more than twenty novels, five collections of short stories, several children’s books, nonfiction books, magazine articles, and a number of plays written for television, radio, and the stage, including the pilot episode for the television series Upstairs Downstairs. She-Devil, the film adaption of her 1983 novel The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, starred Meryl Streep in a Golden Globe–winning role.
