A Woman on the Edge of Time

Chosen as an Observer ‘Book of the Year’ by Ali Smith, Rachel Cooke and Jackie Kay

In 1965, Hannah Gavron – a bright, sophisticated young writer and wife to a rising entrepreneur – gassed herself in Primrose Hill, north London. She left behind a suicide note, two small children, and an about-to-be-published manuscript: The Captive Wife.

Jeremy Gavron was the youngest of Hannah’s children, just four years old when she killed herself. In this searching examination of the events that led to her suicide, he pieces together – from letters, diaries and the memories of old friends – a picture of a brilliant but complex young woman grappling to find an outlet for her intelligence and sexuality as she carved out her place in a man’s world.