A classic novel about the women working in the ladies' frocks section of a department store in Sydney in the 1950s by the Booker-shortlisted Madeleine St. John

Madeleine St John was born in Sydney. She graduated from Sydney University in 1963 and lived in London for most of the succeeding years, until her death in 2006. The Women in Black is her first novel. She also wroteA Pure Clear Light (1996), The Essence of the Thing (1997), which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and Stairway to Paradise (1999).