This intoxicating novel stands on its own, while forming a triumphant conclusion to a s byatts great quartet depicting the clashing forces in english life from the early 1950s to 1970 while frederica falls almost by accident into a career in television in london, tumultuous events in her home county of yorkshire threaten to change her life, and those of the people she loves a whistling woman is the ultimate novel of ideas made flesh - gloriously sensual, sexy and scary, bursting with ideas, and wonderful humanity