The Sea House

This is Esther Freud's best writing yet - it has a new maturity and intensity, and for the first time it is adults, not children, who are at the centre of the story.

Esther Freud trained as an actress before writing her first novel, Hideous Kinky, which was subsequently adapted into a film starring Kate Winslet. After publishing her second book she was chosen as one of Granta's Best Young British Novelists, and her books have been shortlisted for numerous awards. Her other novels include The Sea House, Lucky Break and Mr Mac and Me, and most recently, I Couldn't Love You More. Her first full length play, Stitchers, was produced in 2018. Esther is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

The architect Klaus Lehmann loves his wife, Elsa, with a passion that continues throughout their married life, despite long periods of separation.  Almost half a century after Lehmann's death in the village of Steerborough, a young woman, Lily, arrives to research his life and work.  Poring over Klaus's letters to Elsa, Lily pieces together the story of their lives.  And alone in her rented cottage by the sea, she begins to sense an absence in her own life that may not be filled by simply going home.

Esther Freud

Whimsical, evocative, heartfelt... Synthesizing a blur of images, Hideous Kinky is a song of childhood exile, a paean to the troublesome beauty of life on the run

Funny and appealing... It has a delightful lightness of being

Just open the book and begin, and instantly you will be charmed, then intrigued and finally moved by this fascinating story

Genuine and endearing... Esther Freud is adroit at capturing the way adult follies appear to a child [and] she has a gift for unstated hilarity... Like the sword swallowers in the marketplace, she manages to make it look effortless

Quirky, charming and suffused the footloose spirit of the Sixties, this is the unforgettable story of an English woman who decides on a whim to move herself and her two young daughters to Morocco. The ensuing adventure takes them through richly perfumed markets, dilapidated hotels and mystical Sufi retreats, via friendships and feuds, romances with nomadic street performers, hitch-hiking and nights camping by the coast - all seen through the eyes of a precocious five-year-old girl. An irresistible and transporting modern classic about the path to self-discovery and the spirit of freedom, filled with the sights, smells and textures of twentieth century Morocco.

Esther Freud

Praise for Hideous Kinky

A tour de force

Whimsical, evocative, heartfelt... Synthesizing a blur of images, Hideous Kinky is a song of childhood exile, a paean to the troublesome beauty of life on the run

Funny and appealing... It has a delightful lightness of being

A tour de force

Whimsical, evocative, heartfelt... Synthesizing a blur of images, Hideous Kinky is a song of childhood exile, a paean to the troublesome beauty of life on the run

Funny and appealing... It has a delightful lightness of being

A tour de force

Whimsical, evocative, heartfelt... Synthesizing a blur of images, Hideous Kinky is a song of childhood exile, a paean to the troublesome beauty of life on the run

Funny and appealing... It has a delightful lightness of being

Books by Esther Freud

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