'Lucid, unpretentious writing - a very impressive first novel indeed'
Sheila Macleod, New Statesman.
 
'Back in the First Person is an impressive first novel about the implications of rape  - the common prejudices and myths it unearths; a chilling account of how little the world of a woman is worth, and of hwo the odds are stacked permanaently against her -'

In the months following her rape by a former boyfriend, Cath discovers that  what has happened to her  in not considered to be  a very serious matter. Police incredulity, medical callousness and  courtroom theatrics all threaten to obscure the truth, even from Cath herself. Caught between her own tenuous self-control and  an unadmitted need to tell what has happened and be believed, she becomes walled up in her own silence. Yet during this time, when so much of her is subjected to examination and cross examination Cath begins to understand  her mother, a woman contemptuous of weakness and  emotion,  and, almost too late, she discovers  women who believe her story, among them her lifelong but erratic friend, Sally.  Page writes with great courage about the far-reaching consequences of a particular kind of violence.