It was as if Barbara was preying on Sheba. Her decision to befriend Sheba was so calculated and creepy. I can't say I've been desperate enough to see someone from afar and decide to be their friend in the way that Barbara does. Making friends is a gradual & natural process. I can understand her ex-friend, Jennifer, ending their friendship because Barbara was too intense. I don't blame her. There's no balance in Barbara's life, so when she makes a friend she puts all her energy into making it work. She's suffocating, smothering. I would love to know what Sheba really thought of her.

I loved Barbara's observations. They were quite funny at times.

I don't understand why Sheba found Connolly attractive. I thought he was pretty vile. The description of the shocking photos in Sheba's bag seemed at odds with her character. What was she thinking of? I thought perhaps she's a fantasist; living in cloud cuckoo land, not thinking of consequences. How she thought they could keep the relationship a secret is beyond me. She seemed flighty. When Barbara said Sheba caught her & Connolly's reflection in a window and was shocked that the middle-aged woman was her, I wondered if Connolly made her feel younger and she forgot she was middle-aged? Barbara said she was used to being the youngest in social situations. But as Sheba says, you can't always boil these things down to one simple explanation.

I think when Barbara spilled the beans about Sheba/Connolly to Bangs, she did so not to betray Sheba/get back at her, but to put Bangs down. She was peed off that Bangs had invited her on a date under false pretences and wanted one over him, and to get him back for the comment about her age (I'm sure you looked great when you were younger). She wanted to belittle him, like he had her.

Barbara's annoyed at people because they don't always put her first. She's such a lonely and bitter person, desperate for friendship that she jeopardised her career in order to keep Sheba's friendship. She did tell Sheba to stop the affair and didn't shop her, she remained loyal to her at the cost of her job. But then if she hadn't have set out to ensnare Sheba's friendship, she wouldn't have been so embroiled in the situation and probably wouldn't have known about it had she kept her distance.

I knew she would betray Sheba as she has too many hang ups.

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As a Londoner I gained extra pleasure from accompanying the story on my street map, and on my mental social map, of London. But as a Londoner I also know someone a stone's throw from Connolly's house who could help Sheba sell her sculptures during the 'scandal', and it seems strange that no-one in the book thinks to suggest doing so to Sheba. This to me is another example of the book being not texturally dense enough.

is a lesbian who blackmailed Sheba.

Where in the book does it state she's a lesbian? Part of me wondered if she could be, but that's conjecture.

I didn't think she blackmailed Sheba either. Have I naively not picked up on these things? I would say Barbara is manipulative.

What do you think?

It wasn't stated she was - she's single and living alone so I think it was the other teachers who joked about it?

it was really a bit thin, too many things were not explained like why Sheba trusted Barbara so much, and why she was such a dope about the boy? I wasn't surprised to discover it was written by a journalist, because I felt that it kinda lacked flair.

First of all, I don't think this was about a teacher having an affair with a student. I think it was an insight into the life and mind of Barbara, with the story about Sheba being a bit of an aside.
Clearly Barbara has social issues, possibly due to her strange mother. The fact that she sort of zoomed in on Sheba was a bit of a tell tale sign that she would be more than just an observer.

I actually did feel a bit sorry for Sheba - she's so depressed at the end that she just surrenders to Barbara. But she was stupid wasn't she? Clearly what she did was wrong and she knew it the whole time.

I also think it is important that we remember that Barbara says she doesn't think she could go back to being alone - so she's become dependent on Sheba almost as much as Sheba is on her.

I notice other people question the accuracy of Barbara's account. I did wonder if we got the complete truth, especially after Sheba's reaction. Although Sheba could just be in denial because of her feelings.

I thought exactly the same as you - that the book is a character study of Barbara, more than Sheba. Barbara unwittingly tells us more about herself, when the aim of her writing is to tell us about Sheba's affair. It's so clever that we think we're going to be told the ins and outs of Sheba & Connolly's affair. I can see people being disappointed by this, but like you, I thought it was clever.

did Sheba go to prison ect. But it would probably have ruined the book's narrative style up to that point to do that. I've also realised that I felt quite sorry for Barbara, especially when Portia died - it must be awful to be so lonely, and Richard, I mean he wasn't really that nice but he didn't deserve his life to unravel like that.

Barbara's other friend Jenny (or whatever her name was) seems to have caught on to her weird side and got out while she still could. Clever girl.