Journal Entry 1 by cats-eye from Bishop Auckland, County Durham United Kingdom on Sunday, June 17, 2007

Short-listed for the Orange Prize for fiction, 2007.

Book Description
'The Observations' is a brilliantly original, funny and endlessly intriguing story of one woman's journey from a difficult past into an even more disturbing present. This powerful story of secrets and suspicions, hidden histories and mysterious disappearances is at once compelling and heart-warming, showing the redemptive power of love, loyalty and friendship.

Synopsis
This story is set in Scotland, in the year 1863. In an attempt to escape her not-so-innocent past in Glasgow, Bessy Buckley - the wide-eyed Irish heroine of "The Observations" - takes a job as a maid in a big house outside Edinburgh working for the beautiful Arabella. Bessy is intrigued by her new employer, but puzzled by her increasingly strange requests and her insistence that Bessy keep a journal of her most intimate thoughts. And it seems that Arabella has a few secrets of her own - including her near-obsessive affection for Nora, a former maid who died in mysterious circumstances.