The Uninvited Guests

The Uninvited Guests

Summary

One late spring evening in 1912, in the kitchens at Sterne, preparations begin for an elegant supper party in honour of Emerald Torrington's twentieth birthday. But only a few miles away, a dreadful accident propels a crowd of mysterious and not altogether savoury survivors to seek shelter at the ramshackle manor - and the household is thrown into confusion and mischief.

The cook toils over mock turtle soup and a chocolate cake covered with green sugar roses, which the hungry band of visitors are not invited to taste. But nothing, it seems, will go to plan. As the passengers wearily search for rest, the house undergoes a strange transformation. One of their number (who is most definitely not a gentleman) makes it his business to join the birthday revels.

Evening turns to stormy night, and a most unpleasant game threatens to blow respectability to smithereens: Smudge Torrington, the wayward youngest daughter of the house, decides that this is the perfect moment for her Great Undertaking.

The Uninvited Guests is the bewitching new novel from number one bestseller Sadie Jones. The prizewinning author of The Outcast triumphs in this frightening yet delicious drama of dark surprises - where social codes are uprooted and desire daringly trumps propriety - and all is alight with Edwardian wit and opulence.

Reviews

  • The Uninvited Guests is at once a shimmering comedy of manners and disturbing commentary on class. It is so well-written, so intricately plotted, that every page delivers some new astonishment. It is a brilliant novel.
    ANN PATCHETT, author of State of Wonder

About the author

Sadie Jones

Sadie Jones is the critically acclaimed author of six novels. Her first, The Outcast, won the Costa First Novel Award, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize, and was a Richard and Judy Number One bestseller. Her second, Small Wars, 2009, was longlisted for the Orange Prize. The Uninvited Guests, was published in 2010. Also a screenwriter, Sadie adapted The Outcast for BBC Television in 2014, directed by Iain Softley and starring George Mackay. Her fourth novel, Fallout, came out the same year, and her fifth, The Snakes in 2019. Her sixth novel, Amy and Lan, was published in July 2022.

Sadie is the daughter of the Jamaican screenwriter, novelist and poet, Evan Jones, and British actress, Joanna Jones. She was born and brought up in London, and is married to the architect, Tim Boyd.
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