The Madonna of the Pool is an exquisite collection of short stories which explore the quiet disappointments, compromises and triumphs that lie behind the social exteriors we devise in order to conduct our lives. Drawing on a richly diverse array of characters she shows how small events, insignificant to others, resonate for the protagonist. Her sensitive and accurate observations provide us with memorable portrayals of human adaptation, endurance and optimism. Helen Stancey's novels "WORDS" and "COMMON GROUND" were greeted with aclaim: 'Words is.exquisitely done.a very promising debut' FINANCIAL TIMES '.in the poised assurance of its writing...one has a sense of a writer gifted with an instinctive sense of how to tell a story' SPECTATOR 'writing so accomplished.a beautifully written description of childhood' TABLET 'palpable excellence' LITERARY REVIEW