Watson's Apology

---

Based on the true story of a Victorian schoolmaster who bludgeoned his wife to death on a Sunday afternoon. 

Reverend John Selby Watson is a respectable schoolmaster. His offer of marriage to Anne Armstrong is, for her, a route out of poverty: she seizes it. But learned, bookish Watson has little to offer his passionate, tempestuous wife in the way of affection, and the marriage soon curdles and sours. When Watson is dismissed from the school where he teaches, he finds himself devoid of purpose. With no distraction from each other, the couple’s bickering and arguments ratchet up and events begin to lead, inexorably, towards their tragic and violent conclusion. 

A masterly control of suspense and voice results in a quietly devastating portrait of two incompatible lives destroyed by curtailed dreams, in a novel for fans of Patricia Highsmith and Muriel Spark. 

First published by Duckworth in 1984

Published by Fontana in 1985

Published by Penguin in 1992

Forthcoming edition published by Daunt Books