<p><b>The fifth novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of <i>Free Love</i>, <i>The Past</i> and <i>Late in the Day</i>, <i>Clever Girl </i>is a tale of an ordinary life made extraordinary by the gifts of Tessa Hadley. </b><br><br><b><i>Stella was a clever girl, everyone thought so. </i></b><br><br>Living with her mother and rather unsatisfactory stepfather in suburban respectability she reads voraciously, smokes until her voice is hoarse and dreams of a less ordinary life. When she meets Val, he seems to her to embody everything she longs for - glamour, ideas, excitement and the thrill of the unknown. But these things come at a price and one that Stella despite all her cleverness doesn''t realise until it is too late.<br><br><b>''Tessa Hadley writes like a dream'' <i>Daily Mail</i></b></p>