Lying

by Wendy Perriam

Lying takes a sharp look at our whole culture of mendacity, in which hype and spin rule supreme, statistics are manipulated, history rewritten, hoaxes abound on the internet, bogus guests appear on TV chat shows, and the travel, beauty and health industries peddle expensive dreams. Lying is also a love story. Alison Ward, an idealistic young editor in a publishing house, falls obsessionally in love with an older man, James Egerton, seemingly out of reach on both social and religious grounds. Why should a Cambridge-educated accountant from a well-to-do, ultra-Catholic family be attracted to someone of modest means and background who has rarely set foot inside a church (and whose father moreover dismisses all religion as claptrap)? Against the odds, she wins his love but, five years into their marriage, finds herself leading a double life, upholding 'truths' in public which privately she abhors. The strain of this deception, coupled with deep sadness at their failure to conceive a longed-for child, eventually leads her into an affair. As lie piles on lie, she is horrified at her own faithlessness. Why, when she loves her devout and devoted husband, is she sloping off with a scruffy, layabout barman she doesn't even like? She begins to see falsehood everywhere - in advertising and politics, even science and medicine - and above all in the constricting religion of her husband and his family. Yet James's faith is an essential part of him, his virtue and integrity the very qualities that first attracted her; thus the discovery that even he is entangled in deception comes as a profound shock.

376 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2000

About the author

Wendy Perriam has been writing since the age of five, completing her first ‘novel’ at eleven. Expelled from boarding school for heresy and told she was in Satan’s power, she escaped to Oxford, where she read History and also trod the boards. After a variety of offbeat jobs, ranging from artist’s model to carnation-disbudder, she now divides her time between teaching and writing. Having begun by writing poetry, she went on to publish 16 novels and 7 short-story collections, acclaimed for their power to disturb, divert and shock. She has also written extensively for newspapers and magazines, and was a regular contributor to radio programmes such as Stop the Week and Fourth Column.

Perriam feels that her many conflicting life experiences – strict convent-school discipline and swinging-sixties wildness, marriage and divorce, infertility and motherhood, 9-to-5 conformity and periodic Bedlam – have helped shape her as a writer. ‘Writing allows for shadow-selves. I’m both the staid conformist matron and the slag; the well-organised author toiling at her desk and the madwoman shrieking in a straitjacket.’

Reviews

[Jazzy Stephenson · Rating 1 out of 5]

The main character was dislikable and uninspired, the storyline was dull and the ending was woolly and disappointing. I nearly abandoned the book half way through and wish I'd not bothered persevering.

[Lu · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting, i cant say i’ve read anything like this before. wasn’t the most amazing book i’ve ever read but was enjoyable!

[Nicola · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really interesting book, if for no other reason than you actively dislike both of the main characters for most of the book. The book really explores the idea of faith and religion and what it means to people in different sets of circumstances and at different times of their lives. There are lots of thought provoking ideas in the book and for that reason it is worth a read.