'A powerful writer' Mail on Sunday 'Now here is my web: four women sitting clustered round a table clutching at the memory of a fifth woman. Stretching behind us are those taut parallels, our individual lives: tense fragile constructions stretched through dark spaces which have led with ineffable elegance to this round table on this wet afternoon. We are five women, counting Christine, webbed together now with shared experience, mutual respect and well won affection. Outside in the rain a police car makes its urgent way, blue light flashing.' Paulie Smith In her first few days out of prison Paulie Smith relishes her freedom and embraces the struggle to adapt to the realities of life 'on the out'. She reflects on her time 'inside' focusing on four vert different women she first met in the white prison van. There is Queenie the bag lady who sees giants and angels; Maritza who disguises her pain with an ultra-conventional life; Lilah, who is the spoiled apple of her mother's eye. And then there is tragic, abused Christine - one with the real scars inside and out. The touching stories of these women merge as Paulie, free now after six years in prison, goes looking for them. The others have been free for some years and Paulie goes in search of them to begin to build her own life again. Reader: 5* 'A Fascinating Novel' The monotony of prison erupts with drama and emotion -I loved the characters in Paulie's Web: their strengths, their weaknesses, their backstories and in spite of everything - their humour.' Reader: 5* 'Wendy is a brilliant story-teller who has written more than twenty novels. This one draws on her experience of being a Writer-in-residence working with prisoners. It's a fascinating glimpse behind the tabloid headlines at the unimaginably hard lives of some of those who end up in the prison system because of mental health problems, abusive childhoods, drink and drug dependency. Wendy Robertson says of Paulie's Web: 'It has taken me some years to digest the extremities of my experience in prison and to write my novel as true fiction in a way that pays tribute to the women I met while working there. If, by the by, Paulie's Web goes some way to cracking the absurd stereotypes of women in prison this will be an extra delight. While there are dark elements in the novel I make no apologies for its ultimately optimistic tone which is a true reflection of the humour, stoicism and kindness that I witnessed in my prison experience.' Wendy Robertson has written popular and well-reviewed novels for adults and children and a memoir of her writing life, The Romancer. Over four years from 1999 she was Writer- in residence in a woman's prison. Now, as well as writing a novel each year she writes a popular writer's blog A Life Twice Tasted which ir at http: //www.lifetwicetasted.blogspot.co.uk/ She is a director of Damselfly Books https: //damselflybooks.com/