Clematis Tree

Ann Widdecombe's The Clematis Tree opens deceptively with a party in a sunny Surrey garden. It is a happy day, with relations and friends celebrating the christening of Mark and Claire's new daughter, Pippa.
Jeremy, their young son, spots a pet rabbit racing across the large garden and rushes through the main gate and out into the lane. A speeding sports car knocks him down and although Jeremy survives, he is now severely brain-damaged.
Widdecombe shows how a middle-class couple and their family are forced to cope with a catastrophe they never imagined could happen to them. Although also drawing on her parliamentary knowledge, The Clematis Tree is about people - at work, on holiday, living day by day - and how they, in their different ways, react when death threatens.
What is Claire's guilty secret, she who is so outwardly efficient in dealing with Jeremy in his utterly dependent state? Mark ponders escape, but has he the nerve? Does the attention lavished on Jeremy foster Pippa's resentment? Can Claire's wealthy, self-made father provide a solution? And what effect does Claire's younger sister, Sally, an MP, have when she launches a Private Member's Bill that would legalise euthanasia?