About the Author

Patricia Highsmith (1921-1995) was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and moved to New York when she was six. In her senior year, she edited the college magazine, having decided at the age of sixteen to become a writer. Her first novel, Strangers on a Train (1950), was made into a classic film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951. The Talented Mr Ripley (1955), introduced the fascinating anti-hero Tom Ripley, and was made into an Oscar-winning film in 1999 by Anthony Minghella. Highsmith died in Locarno, Switzerland, in February 1995. Her last novel, Small g: A Summer Idyll, was published posthumously, the same year.

Reviews

From the first page it is recognizably authentic Highsmith. Perhaps approaching her lesbian novel Carol in tenderness and theme, it has a serenity rarely found in Highsmith's world - GuardianYears of producing tight, energetic thrillers has honed down highsmith's style, and in this book, with its child-like simplicity, is quite wonderfully readable - Mail on SundayWhat is most remarkable in this novel is the empathy . . . with which Highsmith writes about gay men . . . one can imagine the small g existing, a piquant mixture of bohemianism and respectability, exactly as Highsmith describes it - SpectatorThe novel is a delight . . . all the more so for its untypically sunny atmosphere - Daily TelegraphSmall g is a welcome addition to Highsmith's published novels, offering readers an insight into a fascinating aspect of Swiss society and an opportunity to explore Highsmith's final concerns and obsessionsAll the qualities we love about Highsmith's work...are here in abundance...her characters astonish themselves, and us, by discovering love in the very last places they ever expected to find it - O Magazine