Zoë Heller

Notes on a Scandal

2003. Penguin Books, 2004.

Afterwards the group split into two - one lot in my car, the other in Richard's - and we drove to Primrose Hill. As I say, I have never been a big fan of firework displays. All that brightness falling, the sad, smoke smell, the finale that is never quite as magnificent as it should be...I suspect that only the tiniest fraction of the crowd gathered on the top of Primrose Hill was genuinely invested in the spectacle, but we all stayed there for a full frigid hour, dutifully manufacturing sharp intakes of breath and other symptoms of ingenuous wonderment

Barbara had been invited to a large family dinner but had 'expressed some reservations about participating in the second part of the evening.' Her hostess however had insisted, not anticipating that it would lead to the discovery of her affair with a 16-year-old boy.

At the end of the display there was a terrible crush as the crowd surged towards the park exits. Richard got panicky and tried to get us to stay at the top of the hill until the crowd had dispersed. But it had grown extremely cold by then and everyone was eager to get home, so he was overruled. We descended the path on the north side of the hill without too much trouble, but when we got to the flat where the people on the paths were attempting to move in two directions, the congestion was a lot worse...The long snaky line moved slowly. We were about two hundred yards from the Regent's Park Road exit when off to my left, between the trees, I glimpsed Sheba. She was standing with a young male