Foreword Summary

What would possess the middle-aged Sheba Hart to have an affair with her fifteen-year-old high school student? Sheba seems to have everything: an upper-class life with a professor for a husband, two children and a position teaching pottery at St. George's, a comprehensive school in North London. Barbara Covett, Sheba's friend and self-appointed caretaker and spokesperson, decides that she wants to explain Sheba's motivations. Barbara claims that her sole purpose is to shed a little light on the facts of Sheba's case. The truth is that Barbara is obsessed with Sheba and will do everything she can to keep control of her, even if it means betraying Sheba and becoming part of her scandal. What Was She Thinking is a delightfully wicked look at the world of sex, obsession and the media's fascination with scandal.

On March 1, 1998, Barbara Covett decides to set the...