Face of Innocence

The Face of Innocence, first published in 1951, tells the tale of Harry Camberley, his oldest friend - the unnamed narrator - and Harry's beautiful fiancee Eve. Both men fall in love with Eve at first sight, but it soon becomes clear that her grasp on reality is slipping; she prefers to lose herself, and those around her, in fantasy. Talked into subterfuge by Harry, his friend begins to wonder if Eve is a conventional girl fallen on hard times, or if there are darker secrets in her past. When the three take a holiday on the French Riviera, Eve's peculiarly open deceitfulness takes a new turn, and this time the consequences will be disastrous if Harry discovers the truth.

William Sansom said of this book:

The author of The Face of Innocence might very well be confused with the author in The Face of Innocence: indeed, there are many similarities. There must be, for most novels are based, however much they are thereafter reshaped, on a wisp of personal experience. Let me say first, then, that the Eve, the woman in the book, is more than a wisp. I have had the debatable pain and assuredly the pleasure of meeting about five of her in the course of my life; and have heard the strains of several more passing here and there.

I wrote The Face of Innocence whilst living in a Victorian house in North London. It had a garden, left half-wild by the war, and these surroundings stimulated what I believe to be a most important need in literature today - to find magic in what are called 'ordinary' things.

William Sansom (1912-1976) was a leading writer of his day, both for fiction and non-fiction. In 1946 and 1947 he was awarded two literary prizes by the Society of Authors, and in 1951 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. During the Second World War he became a full-time London firefighter, serving throughout the Blitz. His experiences during this time inspired much of his writing, including The Blitz and many of the short stories in his celebrated collection Fireman Flower. He also appeared as the fireman who plays the piano in Humphrey Jennings's famous film about the Blitz, Fires Were Started.