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MELANIE GOLDING is a graduate of the MA in creative writing program at Bath Spa University, with distinction. She has been employed in many occupations including farm hand, factory worker, childminder and music teacher. Throughout all this, because and in spite of it, there was always the writing. In recent years she has won and been shortlisted in several local and national short story competitions. Little Darlings is her first novel and has been optioned for screen by Free Range Films, the team behind the adaptation of My Cousin Rachel.
An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
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First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2019
Copyright © Melanie Golding 2019
Melanie Golding asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Ebook Edition © May 2019 ISBN: 9780008293697
‘Chilling story, beautiful prose. Little Darlings is stunning’
Clare Mackintosh, number one Sunday Times bestseller
‘Dark, richly evocative, tense and thought-provoking. Taps into every woman’s fear thath she will not be believed’
Mel McGrath, author of Give Me The Child
‘Melanie Golding tells the truth about motherhood like no other writer since Sylvia Plath … It delivers on all fronts and will continue to rattle you, long after you have put it down’
Felicity Everett, author of The People at Number 9
‘Deep. Dark. Utterly addictive … Be warned – you can’t unread this story. It will haunt you’
Teresa Driscoll, author of I Am Watching You
‘A story that is in turn enthralling, creepy and downright sinister, Melanie Golding turns fairy tales on their heads in Little Darlings … A brilliant, heart-pounding read’
Lisa Hall, author of Between You and Me
‘Little Darlings is brilliant – beautifully written, disturbing and deliciously creepy’
Roz Watkins, author of The Devil’s Dice
‘Riveting, terrifying and at times heartbreaking … Melanie Golding’s disturbing portrait of a new mother’s paranoia is superbly written, cleverly plotted and gruesomely beautiful in an unforgettable way’
Annie Ward, author of Beautiful Bad
Dedicated to the memory of Amber Baxter (née Fink)
1979-2012
Contents
