They beat like drums, the fists. I could hear them from inside the courtroom. I remember so many things about that day, but in quiet moments it is the fists that come back to haunt me, pull at me.
1996, London.
Nicola, tall and gorgeous, has re-birthed herself. She has landed a breakthrough role and her star is rising - she can feel herself blossoming, can see it in the melting eyes of the men, and the jealous eyes of the women.
If Nicola is a flower, Alexandra is a closed bud. Crushed by heartache from a recent breakup, she just wants to succeed as a journalist.
Jeanette has just landed from Manchester. She refuses to let her mother's warnings about London or her Doc Martens weigh her down: she's ready for uni - for life - to start.
This is the story of three women - and the mysterious Mavis. With laughter in their hearts, power in their spirits and beauty in their souls, they reach for dreams the whole world seems to want to destroy. But soon they discover that those who wear the cloak of friendship - family, community, lovers, peers - often cause the greatest pain, the pain of rejection and violation.

Portrait

Leone Ross was born in England and grew up in Jamaica. Her first novel, All the Blood Is Red, was longlisted for the Orange Prize, and her second novel, Orange Laughter,was chosen as a BBC Radio 4 Women's Hour Watershed Fiction favourite. Her short fiction has been widely anthologised and her first short-story collection, the 2017 Come Let Us Sing Anyway was nominated for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize, the Jhalak Prize, the Saboteur Awards and the OCM BOCAS Prize. Ross has taught creative writing for twenty years, at University College Dublin, Cardiff University and Roehampton University in London. She is editor of the first black British anthology of speculative fiction, due out in 2022 with Peepal Tree Press. Prior to writing fiction, Ross worked as a journalist. Leone Ross lives in London but intends to retire near water.