With prose that is vibrant witty and off-the-wall, The Queen of the Tambourine traces the emotional breakdown--and eventual restoration--of Eliza Peabody, a smart and wildly imaginative woman who has become unbearably isolated in her prosperous home in present-day South London. The letters Eliza writes to her neighbor, a woman whom she hardly knows, reveal the story of her self-propelled descent into madness. Eliza must reach the very bottom of her inner downward spiral before she can once again find health and serenity. The story of a woman's confrontation with the ideas and realities of sanity, The Queen of Tambourine will delight readers who enjoy the works of Anita Brookner, Sybille Bedford, Muriel Spark, and Sylvia Plath.