The Bride Stripped Bare [Paperback]

'Starkly explicit…richly descriptive with a fast-paced narrative' Sunday Telegraph

'Nikki Gemmel's prose has a wonderful sensuousness…witty…a subtle portrait of a modern and rather alienating marriage' Lisa Appignanesi, Independent Magazine

'Must read…A tale of sexual awakening for the dark horse in all of us' Tatler

‘The sex is well-written…Gemmell is refreshingly straightforward about the act' Melanie McGrath, Evening Standard

'Easy to read, hard to put down. Keep an extinguisher handy' Closer

'A page-turner' Evening Standard

'A bored housewife embarks on a life of sexual pleasure…The sex is rude and raunchy and "exactly where you want it"' Elle

'Personal dilemmas are bravely explored; thoughts and fantasies about sex and infidelity, which most women have learned to keep to themselves, are laid bare on the page in all their shocking glory…brutal, brilliant and addictive' Glasgow Herald

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

'Starkly explicit!richly descriptive with a fast-paced narrative' Sunday Telegraph 'Nikki Gemmel's prose has a wonderful sensuousness!witty!a subtle portrait of a modern and rather alienating marriage' Lisa Appignanesi, Independent Magazine 'Must read!A tale of sexual awakening for the dark horse in all of us' Tatler 'The sex is well-written!Gemmell is refreshingly straightforward about the act' Melanie McGrath, Evening Standard 'Easy to read, hard to put down. Keep an extinguisher handy' Closer 'A page-turner' Evening Standard 'A bored housewife embarks on a life of sexual pleasure!The sex is rude and raunchy and "exactly where you want it"' Elle 'Personal dilemmas are bravely explored; thoughts and fantasies about sex and infidelity, which most women have learned to keep to themselves, are laid bare on the page in all their shocking glory!brutal, brilliant and addictive' Glasgow Herald --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

For fans of Fifty Shades of Grey, the international bestseller – an explosive novel of sex, secrecy and escape.

A woman disappears. Her car lies abandoned on a remote bluff; no body is found. She was the good wife, the good mother: mannerly, quiet, self-contained. But she has left behind an incendiary diary chronicling a disturbing journey of sexual awakening.

As the diary opens on her honeymoon in Morocco, she believes herself to be happy – or happy enough, anyway. Swiftly, this security masquerading as love fractures in an act of massive betrayal, only to propel her into a world of desire and fantasy and recklessness. What begins for her in the imagination ends in a tangle of sheets, in a drowning spiral of obsession and release. She dares to rupture convention, learning, for the first time, the intoxicating power of knowing what she wants and how to get it. The question is, how long can her soul sustain a perilous double life?

Coolly impassioned, The Bride Stripped Bare tells shocking truths about love and sex. These are the kind of revelations that best friends whisper to each other and then decide to forget they ever revealed. Couched in a deceptively simple style, it will make you question whether it is ever entirely possible to know another person.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

A woman disappears. Her car lies abandoned on a remote bluff; no body is found. She was the good wife, the good mother: mannerly, quiet, self-contained. But she has left behind an incendiary diary chronicling a disturbing journey of sexual awakening.

As the diary opens on her honeymoon in Morocco, she believes herself to be happy – or happy enough, anyway. Swiftly, this security masquerading as love fractures in an act of massive betrayal, only to propel her into a world of desire and fantasy and recklessness. What begins for her in the imagination ends in a tangle of sheets, in a drowning spiral of obsession and release. She finds an unlikely heroine to inspire her in a dusty, rare manuscript written by an anonymous woman in the 1600s, a cry from the heart for women to live and love freely. With this as guide, she dares to rupture convention, learning, for the first time, the intoxicating power of knowing what she wants and how to get it. The question is, how long can her soul sustain a perilous double life?

Coolly impassioned, THE BRIDE STRIPPED BARE tells shocking truths about love and sex. These are the kind of revelations that best friends whisper to each other and then decide to forget they ever revealed. Couched in a deceptively simple style, it will make you question whether it is ever entirely possible to know another person. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

The author has had two previous novels published to critical acclaim, with reviewers hailing the freshness and power of her writing. In the tradition of women over the centuries, she has decided to conceal her name in order to allow herself utter freedom in the writing of this novel. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Dear sir,

I am taking the liberty of sending you this manuscript, which I am hoping may interest you.

It was written by my daughter. Twelve months ago she vanished. Her car was found at the top of a cliff in the south of England, yet her body was never recovered. Despite extensive questioning of several people close to her the police concluded it was a case of suicide and closed their file. Others speculate that she may have staged her disappearance. I’m not sure about either scenario and the uncertainty of it all, I must admit, has consumed my life.

She was completing a book at the time of her disappearance. It was in her laptop which the police returned to me. I’m the only person, as far as I know, whom she told about what she’d been working on. It’s about a married woman’s secret life, and my daughter wished to remain anonymous because she wanted to write with complete candour; she feared she’d only end up censoring herself if her name was attached. She also wanted to protect the people around her, and herself.

I read through her manuscript in the hope of finding a reason for her vanishing, and I felt her life open up before me like a flower. How much I didn’t know. How much I didn’t want to know. She was a stranger to me in many ways, and yet the person closest to me.

My first instinct, I must admit, was just to delete her book and forget about it, but it’s been long time since her going, and even though I’ve never stopped hoping it will be her on the end of the line when the phone rings, I feel, now, that I owe it to her to help if I can and find a publisher for her work. I believe it’s what she wanted, very much. Her happiness is, ultimately, all I ever wanted for her.

So, here is The Bride Stripped Bare. Thank you for your time. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.