The Private Side of Friendship – an exquisite stand-alone novel of unforgettable friendship, personal growth and societal change.

It is 1984, and the UK is experiencing a moment of great significance: the miners’ strike. In mining communities throughout the country, passions run high as the confrontation between the Government and the miners is notched up. In the affected communities, there is real hardship as the families of striking miners go without. In slow motion, an old way of life is brought to an end.

In Edinburgh, in a large flat overlooking the Meadows parkland, six students are facing the end of an academic year, preparing to go their separate ways in a changing world.

Over three years, they drift apart through the twists and turns of life, before meeting up for a reunion in 1987, for what may well be their last evening together. It becomes clear to all that sometimes you have to let go of the past. You take away its lessons, but you let the rest go.

The Private Side of Friendship is a modern classic – powerful, deeply moving.

‘This is a novel about six students, living in Edinburgh in 1984. Against the backdrop of the Miners’ Strike and its impact on society, we visit the friendships that develop between these young people and consider the delicate line between being a friend and being a lover. Being a flatmate is not always easy, but at times it is deeply satisfying.’

– Alexander McCall Smith