`From Charlotte Bronte's Lucy Snowe through Muriel Spark's Jean Brodie to Roald Dahl's Miss Honey, schoolmistresses have been among the best-loved characters in fiction.In Susie Boyt's Harriet Mansfield there is a new name to add to that list...a brilliant portrait.' Daily Mail `Boyt is a compassionate chronicler of the human heart . . .. In Harriet Mansfield, she has drawn a character whose moral and emotional courage is both convincing and heartbreaking' Financial Times `Boyt has a gift for creating loveable protagonists...Harriet is magnificent.' Independent. `An exquisitely written tale of a damaged woman attempting to mend her past with a grand gesture.' Pyschologies`An absolute gem of a novel: exquisite, diamond-bright and lacerating to the hardest of hearts.' Literary Review`Wonderfully unexpected...brilliantly done' BBC Radio 4 Saturday Review