Anna Raine is desperate: to escape Somerset, to evade her mother, and above all, to find a model of adulthood on whom to base her future self. When Stella, her mother's thrillingly reckless and beautiful younger sister, offers her Bloomsbury flat, Anna feels sure that an idiosyncratic but stylish wardrobe, interesting friends, several handsome suitors and some form of stardom will shortly follow.

While by day Anna feigns efficient adulthood, by night she sinks deeper into an increasingly heated world of discovery. As secrets rise to the surface and her fantasies begin to flower, fed by a photograph of Stella and another woman at a party, Anna tries to focus on Richard, Stella's enigmatic, occasional lover. And meanwhile the date for Stella's brief return from Paris approaches . . .

'An intelligent and gripping first novel with a pleasurable ripple of sexual tension' Diva

'A strange, stealthy, headily scented seethe of a book' Ali Smith, Glasgow Herald

'Love in Idleness is an elegant and assured debut, both a neat comedy of London manners and a poignant journey to self-discovery' Michael Arditti, Daily Mail

'With her gift for light humour, Mendelson seems to be skipping across the surface. Then she'll suddenly dive into a world of obsession' Josie Barnard, Independent on Sunday