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Harriet Lane

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Harriet Lane has worked as an editor and staff writer at Tatler and the Observer. She has also written for Vogue, the Guardian and the New York Times. She lives in north London.

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Harriet Lane Thank you so much. I'm deep into the third book; think the end is in sight. Watch this space!…moreThank you so much. I'm deep into the third book; think the end is in sight. Watch this space!(less)
Harriet Lane Hello! There are clues throughout, but they take different readers in different directions. There are several different interpretations, and none of t…moreHello! There are clues throughout, but they take different readers in different directions. There are several different interpretations, and none of them are wrong, as far as I'm concerned.
I was always writing towards that scene. I knew before I started that the book would end exactly there, in that situation, with that particular question mark. I'm wary of spoilers but I guess we can agree that there's an undercurrent of unease and apprehension running throughout the book. Perhaps I liked the idea of ending the book at the moment when that anxiety is at its peak. The books I love best seem to get under my skin and bother me long after I've finished them. Often these are books with an element of ambiguity to them (The Little Stranger, Legend of a Suicide and The Haunting of Hill House in particular). I find ambiguity so powerful, more powerful (and somehow more true) than everything being neatly resolved.
Of course I always knew some readers would hate that ambiguity. All I can say is, I write the sort of books I want to read, and this was the ending I knew I wanted before I even started writing. (less)
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Quotes by Harriet Lane  (?)
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“I know the names of the books - their old covers bleached to palest greens or pinks by the endless cycle of summers - lined up on the shelf.”
Harriet Lane, Alys, Always

“I turn my back and look out to sea, the sun so low and molten that my eyes fill with tears, and yet I can feel it: a cooler wind is coming in, the edge of evening approaching. Dusk is gathering along the coast, in the coves and quaysides and marinas, where in an hour or so the long strings of coloured bulbs will twinkle and sway; and then it will pass over us-like a visitation: a plague or a blessing....”
Harriet Lane, Her

“Maybe it's not really lying if you barely know you're doing it. It should be true. It's the way it should be, in an ideal world.”
Harriet Lane, Alys, Always

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