ABSTRACT
Helen Dunmore was born in Beverley, Yorkshire, in 1952. She began publishing her poetry when she was in her early twenties and has produced several collections, including Out of the Blue, a volume which includes poems from 1975 to 2001. Her first published novel was Zennor in Darkness, a story set in Cornwall during the First World War where the novelist D. H. Lawrence and his German wife are living, provoking local suspicions and gossip through their unconventional behaviour and opinions. A Spell of Winter was followed by what is probably Dunmore's most powerful and well-worked novel. Talking to the Dead is both a mystery that unfolds with the dexterous plotting of the best crime novel and a highly intelligent study of the complexities of family life and the secrets which may lie hidden for years but which can both shape and destroy lives.
