Moggach, Deborah

(British, 1948– )

Moggach writes short stories and novels, some of which have been transferred to television. She chronicles all aspects of contemporary British life. In See saw (1997) the Prices’ comfortable family life slowly unravels when their eldest daughter is kidnapped by a couple who believe them to be wealthy. This is further complicated by the relationship that is formed between the daughter and her male kidnapper. Moggach's stories often explore a time when an unexpected event forces a character to reassess his or her life. In Driving Through the Night (1988) Desmond is thrown out by his tempestuous wife and journeys in a stolen coach up and down England, in a quest for his lost son. Porky (1993) examines an incestuous father-daughter relationship.

Tulip Fever (1999), set in seventeenth-century Amsterdam, tells the story of beautiful young Sophia, married to a rich old man who engages an artist to paint their portrait. Sophia and the artist fall in love, and enter an ever-increasing spiral of deceit. Moggach's short simple sentences here create an overpowering sense of pace and pressure.

Penelope Lively, Margaret Forster  TO/JR