Pillion Riders

(Paperback)

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Description

Opal, gamine and sensitive, is married off early to an elderly business associate, Helmut Gressinger. She lives a cossetted life of luxury in London, but when Helmut takes her to Paris, she falls passionately in love with a young French composer of scant means and morals. Yet if Helmut is old and boring, he is at least caring and kind, whereas Jean-Claude is melancholic, secretive and brutish. Moreover, he is obsessed by the memory of his dead sister. Having left Helmut for a new and daring life with her penniless lover, Opal accompanies Jean-Claude to central France, where he is inspired to compose an opera based on Alain-Fournier's evocative masterpiece, Le Grand Meaulnes. It is against this background that Opal explores the conflicting demands of passion and morality, the painful battle between head and heart.

Reviews

'I like Elisabeth Russell Taylor. She gets better and better' A.S. Byatt.

Author Bio

Elisabeth Russell Taylor was educated at the Sorbonne and at King's College, London. She is married to the painter Tom Fairs and lives in north London.