As the book moves forward, we see Frances ruthlessly capitalizing on each opportunity that springs from her association with the Kytes. The relationships she builds with the Kytes will have an impact on her own life, both professionally and personally, as Frances dares to wonder whether she might now become a player in her own right . One bitterly cold winter's evening driving back to London from her parents' home, she encounters a car that has skidded from the road and is witness to the last few minutes of the driver's life. There’s a fascinating tension here between Frances’s increasingly disturbing behaviour, and a sense that it’s at least somewhat mitigated by the ghastliness of the people she’s forcing herself upon. Later, when Alys’s famous family gets in touch, Frances finds herself for the first time ushered into the world on the other side of the window.

Later, when Alys's famous family gets in touch, Frances finds herself ushered for the first time into the world on the other side of the window.

Her opportunism works wonders: at the office she is promoted; she gets to have lunch with the rich and privileged. Joanne Froggatt of ‘Downton Abbey’ fame is good as Frances, a put-upon young woman, somewhat bereft of charisma or warmth who gradually reshapes herself to fill the void in the Kyte family’s lives. This stage version of Alys, Always was premiered at the Bridge Theatre, London, in February 2019, directed by Nicholas Hytner and starring Joanne Froggatt and Robert Glenister.

When the dead woman's family is interested in meeting Frances, she uses this "in" as her chance to appear connected in the literary world. Harriet Lane's exceptional first novel matches the twisted motivations of Sophie Hannah to the social satire of Amanda Craig's A Vicious Circle .Theatre includes, at The Bridge, A Christmas Carol, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Two Ladies, Alys, Always and Young Marx. She then stays with the woman, Alice Kite, giving her words of comfort and encouragement while awaiting arrival of the ambulance. AWARDS Olivier, Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child ; Special Tony, Drama Desk, Helpmann and Evening Standard Awards for The Encounter (with co-designer Pete Malkin); Olivier and Helpmann Awards for Black Watch ; Olivier Award for Waves ; and IRNE Award for Wild Swans .

And suddenly, just weeks after the West End stage version of All About Eveopened, we're in Eve Harrington territory, as she inveigles herself, unwittingly at first, into Laurence's family, striking up a friendship with his daughter Polly, then a furtive sexual relationship with Laurence himself. Frances is a 30-something sub-editor, an invisible production drone on the books pages of the Questioner. Hugely enjoyable debut about 30-something Frances Thorpe, a lowly sub-editor on the books pages of a Sunday paper who suddenly and unexpectedly comes into contact with the family of a Man Booker prize-winning author - and there sees an opportunity. Nor does it ever really take off as a thriller: If there’s a chilling element here it’s that it stays this side of realism, Frances never descending into boggle-eyed insanity but insinuating herself into people’s lives and jobs in a way that makes you wonder who you should be looking over your shoulder for in real life.But when she realises Alys’s widowed husband is heavyweight author Laurence Kyte (Robert Glenister), an ambition to enter his world is kindled: at first just a spark; later a bonfire. Television includes War and Peace, Sense and Sensibility, Fame is the Spur, Rumpole of the Bailey, Rebecca, Inspector Morse, Sherlock Holmes, Pride and Prejudice, The Forsyte Saga, Monarch of the Glen, He Knew He Was Right, Bleak House, A Touch of Frost, Miss Marple, Casualty, and most recently Death in Paradise, Downton Abbey, Man in an Orange Shirt, Agatha Raisin, Thanks for the Memories, The Boy with the Topknot and Delicious.

But Hytner’s pace is a bit too steady, and you feel like there should be a big twist coming; as I saw we were minutes away from the end it became clear it would never materialise. This is, at first, an unusual diversion in a mundane life for Frances; but then the realisation comes that the "Alice" in question is Alys Kyte wife of literary giant Laurence Kyte.Her observations of the rich, in-set are astute and often amusing, but it is in Frances's portrayal of her depressingly middle-class parents that Lane, and Frances, are at their most hilarious. This event allows Frances access to the world of the famous novelist, Laurence, as well as his grown-up children, particularly the drama school drop out Polly. Quiet, subtle and unassuming Frances connives and finally weasels her way into the lives of the Kyte family - the family of a celebrity author that she meets quite by accident.