A novel of sexuality, morality, and Catholic guilt in a faltering marriage. Lying takes a sharp look at our whole culture of mendacity, in which hype and spin rule supreme, statistics are manipulated, history is rewritten, hoaxes abound on the internet, bogus guests appear on TV chat shows, and the travel, beauty, and health industries peddle expensive dreams.

Lying is also a love story. Alison Ward, an idealistic young editor in a publishing house, falls obsessionally in love with an older man, James Egerton. But five years into their marriage, Alison finds that only through deception and lies can she sustain the life she thought she wanted.

"Perriam is not as well-known in this country as similar writer Joanna Trollope, and most of her previous books are out of print, but this provocative story of modern mendacity deserves a second look." —Publishers Weekly

"Joanna Trollope meets Graham Greene ... Wendy Perriam is one of our most consistent, and most consistently under-rated, authors ... Perriam has a fine sense of emotional drama: whole scenes are driven by a sudden fit of lust, jealousy, anger, taking a character in its grip ... a highly professional effort." —Sunday Telegraph

"In her cleverly plotted fourteenth novel, certainly one of her best, Wendy Perriam explores not just the complicated process of lying in a marriage, but also its ethics ... Perriam teases us to the end with twists and turns in the plot. But just as accomplished is the novel's moral debate" —Literary Review