What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal

A lonely schoolteacher reveals more than she intends when she records the story of her best friend's affair with a pupil in this sly, insightful novel. Schoolteacher Barbara Covett has led a solitary life until Sheba Hart, the new teacher at St. George's, befriends her. But even as their relationship develops, so too does another: Sheba has begun an illicit affair with an underage male student.

When the scandal turns into a media circus, Barbara decides to write an account in her friend's defense—and ends up revealing not only Sheba's secrets but her own. What Was She Thinking? is a story of repression and passion, envy and complacence, friendship and loneliness. A complex psychological portrait framed as a wicked satire, it is by turns funny, poignant, and sinister.

The basis of the 2006 film, Notes on a Scandal, starring Judi Dench and Kate Blanchett.