The Dressmaker (Bainbridge novel) The Dressmaker (Bainbridge novel) The Dressmaker (US title The Secret Glass) is a gothic psychological novel written by Beryl Bainbridge. In 1973, it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Like many of Bainbridge's earlier works, the novel is semi-autobiographical. In particular, the story was inspired by a relationship that she had with a soldier as a teenager. The characters of Nellie and Margo were based upon two of her paternal aunts. Set in Liverpool and Lancashire during World War II, a repressed dressmaker and her sister struggle looking after their 17-year-old niece, who is having a delusional affair with an
The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (novel) The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (novel) The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane is a 1974 novel by Laird Koenig. It is about a 13-year-old girl named Rynn Jacobs who lives alone in a house, and murders people who threaten her solitary life. Koenig adapted his novel into a 1976 film of the same name, directed by Nicolas Gessner and starring Jodie Foster as Rynn. In 1997, he adapted it into a stage play. In 1974, the science fiction magazine "Luna Monthly" reviewed it as "A light, gripping, smoothly written thriller." The review also assessed the