The novel has the momentum of a thriller but not at the expense of an economical lyricism - there is a lovely assurance to the writing. At one point, Frances skewers the tedium of Kyte’s fiction – stories about “middle-aged, middle-class men who struggle with the decline in their physical powers, a decline that mirrors the state of the culture around them”. There are shades of Alan Bennett, that master of observation of English middle-class mediocrity, in some of Lane's descriptions of Frances's mother, from whose kitchen the food rolls out in marshalled surges, like Bomber Command. Her happy moments with Polly the airhead show the emptiness of contemporary celebrity, but you do wonder why we should care. She ends up being with the driver, Alys, when she dies, and a few weeks later the family ask to meet Frances so she can tell them about her last moments in person.

It was as if the author couldn't make up her mind about the character, so she failed to elicit either our sympathy or our revulsion.Whether that's putting new work on stages across the world or supporting our outreach and learning programmes, every purchase you make really does make a difference. Teddy (Sam Woolf), Laurence’s son, is the play’s most interesting character, and the one who instinctively resents Frances’s steady encroachment; sadly, save for one emotional moment of pain and a few sulky “Oh, for fuck’s sake”s, he is largely neglected by Coxon’s script. She’s quiet and capable, but nobody takes much notice: her face is pressed to the window, on the outside looking in. She’s quiet and capable, but nobody takes much notice: her face is pressed to the window, on the outside, looking in.

One night driving home, she is the first on the scene of an accident and last to speak to the victim, a woman, "Alice", who then dies. By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. In this novel, protagonist Frances Thorpe appears to be a stereotypical loner, single, living alone, visiting her parents on weekends, and virtually invisible in her offices. Alys, Always is a muted experiment for Hytner, whose more recent productions – Julius Caesar, Allelujah!Frances seizes on the morbid opportunity seeing it as a chance to improve her life and when she visits the family in their exquisite Highgate home she attempts to ingratiate herself with the family, honing in on the needy, nineteen-year-old Polly Kyte, a drama student who is seeking comfort after her mothers death.