Alys, Always Paperback / softback

A psychological thriller excavating the fault lines that separate the entitled from the rest, Alys, Always is adapted for the stage by Lucinda Coxon from Harriet Lane's gripping novel. Frances works on the books pages of a Sunday newspaper.

She's quiet and capable, but nobody takes much notice: her face is pressed to the window, on the outside, looking in. One evening, driving back to London after visiting her infuriating parents, she comes across an overturned car crumpled on the side of the road.

She waits with the injured driver, Alys Kyte, until the ambulance arrives.

Later, when Alys's famous family gets in touch, Frances finds herself ushered for the first time into the world on the other side of the window. And she begins to wonder: what will it take to belong?

This stage version of Alys, Always was premiered at the Bridge Theatre, London, in February 2019, directed by Nicholas Hytner and starring Joanne Froggatt and Robert Glenister. 'Wonderfully observed… a gripping, psychologically complex achievement, whose greatest success is the lingering sense of unease' Sunday Telegraph on Harriet Lane's novel