Patricia Highsmith (1921-1995) was born in Fort Worth, Texas. Her first novel, Strangers on a Train, was made into a classic film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951. The Talented Mr Ripley, published in 1955, introduced the fascinating anti-hero Tom Ripley, and was made into an Oscar-winning film in 1999 by Anthony Minghella. Graham Greene called Patricia Highsmith 'the poet of apprehension', saying that she 'created a world of her own - a world claustrophobic and irrational which we enter each time with a sense of personal danger'. Patricia Highsmith died in Locarno, Switzerland, in February 1995. Her last novel, Small g: A Summer Idyll, was published posthumously, the same year.
The setting is Venice, the characterisation brilliant, the syle spare and superb - Daily Mail Illuminating - and always compelling - New York Times Highsmith keeps moving, darting in and out of our field of vision, making afterimages that will tremble - but stay - in our minds - New Yorker No one has created psychological suspense more densely and deliciously satisfying - Vogue