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The Well of Loneliness
The Well of Loneliness
Jan 14, 2026 3:47 PM

Author:Radclyffe Hall

The Well of Loneliness

This pride month, discover the groundbreaking and moving lesbian novel that rocked the British establishment.

As a little girl Stephen Gordon always felt different.

A talent for sport, a hatred of dresses and a preference for solitude were not considered suitable for a young lady of the Victorian upper-class. But when Stephen grows up and falls passionately in love with another woman, her standing in the county and a place at the home she loves becomes untenable.

Stephen must set off to discover whether there is anywhere in the world that will have her.

The complete and enhanced edition contains extra information and archival material that tells the fascinating story behind The Well’s controversial publication, trial and ban in 1928.

Reviews

Passionately felt and courageous

—— Spectator

A pioneering lesbian novel

—— Daily Telegraph

Beautifully written and constructed, with delightful prose. It is the standard-bearer; the lesbian The Grapes of Wrath

—— Lee Lynch

Thrilling... combines the social engagement of David Peace with Robert Macfarlane's talent for describing the countryside in crisp, fresh language. From ghosts of the Civil War to the meaning of the miners’ strike, this is a beguiling tale about a rural England where questions of power and identity are as pertinent now as they ever were.

—— Max Liu , Independent

Cohu skilfully builds a narrative that reveals the reverberations of the Victorian past - and an enduring mystery - upon the present. He subtly details his characters' feelings, and though the consequences are tragic, they prove fertile material for fine fiction.

—— Anita Sethi , Mail on Sunday

Cohu is a writer with a profound understanding of human frailty, and one of the most appealing things about Nothing But Grass is the dignity it grants its characters... There is real compassion in the way the book traces the effects of time on people’s hopes and dreams. These are, for the most part, ordinary working folk, the kind whose lives are rarely taken seriously by literature or in our cultural conversation; Cohu’s book is a powerful and necessary antidote to the tired elitism of so many metropolitan literary novels... Cohu’s insightful, moving depictions of both people and place illuminate what is an accomplished and memorable rural novel

—— Melissa Harrison , Guardian

Beautifully written and original

—— AS Byatt , Observer

Lovely and unusual

—— Joanna Kavenna , Oldie

Cohu’s strong characterisation and sure-footed feel for his territory endow Nothing but Grass with the sense of social, psychological and geographical strata being excavated.

—— Alastair Mabbot , Herald

I just loved it. Lethally funny and so clever.

—— Jilly Cooper

I ADORED it. It's the most fun I've had with a book in a long time, and I love how she writes - so many dazzling sentences and phrases.

—— Marian Keyes

Sparkling savage and remarkably sexy.

—— Daisy Goodwin

A wickedly funny, biting satire of Notting Hill's basement-digging class. My absolute guiltiest read this summer.

—— Plum Sykes

The Jane Austen of W11

—— Scotsman on Winter Games

An addictively funny read about the lives of the rich and richer. Four stars

—— Heat on Notting Hell

Smart, pacy, and hysterically funny

—— Deirdre O’Brien , Sunday Mirror

This provocative debut explores whether monogamy is all it’s cracked up to be

—— Glamour

Witty, sparkling and a dissection of monogamy and happiness... Entertaining

—— Lady

Here is a heroine who scores a solid ten on the sass-o-meter, and she made the whole reading experience a hoot… Guilt-free fun with this deliciously rampant romp.

—— Sarah Hughes , Heat
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