SIMMONDS, POSY
u003cbu003e***WINNER OF THE COMEDY WOMEN IN PRINT PRIZE 2020***u003c/bu003e u003cpu003eu003cbu003e'Simmonds is a copper-bottomed geniusu003c/bu003e... u003cbu003eshe is as brilliant a writer as Britain has'u003c/bu003e u003cbu003eJenny Colgan, u003ciu003eMail Onlineu003c/iu003eu003c/bu003eu003cpu003eCassandra Darke is an art dealer, mean, selfish, solitary by nature, living in Chelsea in a house worth £7 million.u003c/pu003eu003cpu003eShe has become a social pariah, but doesn't much care. Between one Christmas and the next, she has sullied the reputation of a West End gallery and has acquired a conviction for fraud, a suspended sentence and a bank balance drained by lawsuits. On the scale of villainy, fraud seems to Cassandra a rather paltry offence - her own crime involving 'no violence, no weapon, no dead body'.u003c/pu003eu003cpu003eBut in Cassandra's basement, her young ex-lodger, Nicki, has left a surprise, something which implies at least violence and probably a body . . . Something which forces Cassandra out of her rich enclave and onto the streets. Not those local streets paved with gold and lit with festive glitter, but grimmer, darker places, where she must make the choice between self-sacrifice and running for her life.u003c/pu003e