Author(s): Hilary Mantel ISBN: 9780007157761 Binding: Paperback Published: 2006-03-01 Alison is a medium. She hears voices from the other side. But the messages are sometimes too dark to pass on so she tells her clients – drawn from the outer reaches of London – what they want to hear. Alison is ‘a girl of unfeasible size, with plump creamy shoulders, rounded calves, thighs and hips that overflow her chair’. But put some make-up on her beige features and she glows. Colette, her manager and side-kick, makes the bookings and gets Alison on stage. The two travel from one dreary hotel, and from one concrete civic building to another. Colette is something of a blank with flat hair but she too might be psychic: she may have spoken to her boyfriend’s dead mother on the telephone. After Alison reveals Colette’s real father, Colette decides to work for her. And then there is Morris, Alison’s foul-mouthed and obscene Spirit Guide. He appears to her one day and she is now stuck with him for life. This hilarious black comedy is the work of a master writer at the height of her powers.Source- Goodreads.comL13
