Black Mirror

Frances hates the way she looks and she has been so absorbed in self-loathing that her brother's suicide has caught her unaware. She realises she was unaware of signs of distress or despair in him. She blames herself for this failure in communication and after a long and difficult struggle against her self-imposed isolation, decides to join the charitable organisation with which he was involved in order to give back some of the benefits she has reaped from the scholarship it provided her with. Frances's artistic talent is translated into a rich source of inner visualisation and an internal dialogue illuminated with striking imagery. This, coupled with the Buddhist aphorisms beloved of her mother and brother, provides her with both challenge and comfort. When Frances discovers the sinister truth behind Unity, the charitable organisation which is a carefully constructed front for a drug dealing industry of huge proportions, responsible for her brother Daniel's death, events uncoil in a skilful and compelling way with tension maintained. Frances comes through her experiences with a real sense of her own unique qualities and is able for the first time to see who she really is without the distortions of a society - corrupt in itself - which judges others only by its own narrow and stereotypical criteria.