Read Never Close Your Eyes Online

Authors: Emma Burstall

Never Close Your Eyes

Table of Contents
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Version 1.0
Epub ISBN 9781409050650
  
Published by Preface 2009
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Copyright © Emma Burstall, 2009
Emma Burstall has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser
First published in Great Britain in 2009 by Preface Publishing
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An imprint of The Random House Group
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 84809 047 7
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Also by Emma Burstall
Gym and Slimline
For my parents, Sue and Christopher Burstall.
Thank you for everything.
‘There are literally thousands of writing groups across the country. It seems as though in every street in Britain someone is writing a book.' Alan Samson, Publisher
Acknowledgments
I drew on the knowledge and experiences of many truly remarkable people to write this novel. Thank you Clare Fawcett, Emma Lewis, Kate O'Connor, Julie Brack, Peter Cox, Sgt Ian Bishop, Fiona Putty and Paola Carr-Walker for their insights and advice.
Nor would it have been possible without the kindness and patience, not to mention the invaluable literary and technical expertise, of my wonderful editor, Rosie de Courcy. And a great big thank you to my fantastic agent, Heather Holden-Brown, for her wisdom, wit and friendship.
A big kiss goes to my children, Georgia, Harry and Freddie, for making themselves scarce when it really mattered, and to my husband, Kevin, for rising so graciously to the role of chief cook and bottle washer when circumstances demanded.
My dear father, Christopher Burstall, died just before
Never Close Your Eyes
was published. Sadly, he never got to read it, but his loving inspiration is present in every page.
Characters
Evie Freestone: a wedding-dress designer
Neil: her estranged husband, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist
Freya and Michael: their children
Helen: Neil's new live-in partner
Margot: Evie's former boss
Bill: Evie's neighbour, a former university professor
Jan: his dead wife
Galina: a Ukrainian student, taught by Bill
Steve: Evie's boyfriend, a celebrity writer
Jacob: Steve's baby son
Lucy: Freya's best friend
Abigail, Chantelle and Gemma: schoolgirl bullies
Liam: Abigail's boyfriend
Richie: Chantelle's ex-boyfriend
Cal Barton: Freya's online friend
Becca Goodall: Chief Investment Officer for a large international company
Tom: Becca's husband, a sports journalist
Alice and James: their children
Monica: their au pair
Gary Laybourn: Becca's old schoolfriend, who works for a human rights charity
Michelle: Gary's wife
Dawn Mackey: a schoolgirl from Newcastle
Jude: her sister
Maureen: their mother, a cleaner
Nic Quinton: a freelance journalist
Alan: her husband, an accountant
Dominic: their son
Marie: Nic's oldest friend
Tristram: chairman of the St Barnabas's Creative Writing Group
Carol, Pamela, Russell, Jonathan, Angela and Tim: members of the writing group
Griselda: Carol's sister
Zelda: a clairvoyant
Miss Addison: her former class teacher
Derek: Zelda's former boyfriend
NEVER CLOSE
YOUR EYES
Emma Burstall
Chapter One
Benwell, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1978
‘Look at yersel'! Ye're such a fuckin' saddo.'
Jude was standing in the bedroom doorway, her face fixed in a mean sneer. Dawn could see the red freckles on her nose, the pale, ugly eyebrows, the clogged mascara. She wondered for a moment why Jude didn't paint her eyebrows black, too, to match the lashes. There again, there wasn't much point. She'd always be hideously ugly whatever she did.
Dawn turned away from her sister and back to the exercise book on the end of her bed. She didn't have a desk; she had to kneel on the floor.
‘Was the collapse of the Weimar Republic inevitable?' she read. She picked up the black Biro again and put the end in her mouth. She always did that; it helped her think.
She heard Jude leave her position in the doorway and pad in bare feet across the tatty blue carpet to her side of the room. The thought of Jude's feet made Dawn feel sick. Jude hardly ever cut her toenails, which were long, yellowish and dirty, with bits of red chipped nail varnish that had been there for months. Dawn didn't know how Jude's lover boy could stand them. There again, it wouldn't be her feet he was after. Dawn didn't like to think about that, either.
Jude started opening her bedside drawers and banging things around, humming loudly. Dawn wanted to cry. It was so unfair. The essay was due in tomorrow and she'd been enjoying writing it. Mam would be home from work soon, then she and Jude would have to help get the tea, though Jesus knows what they were going to eat. Chips and that disgusting tinned ham again probably.

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