Vickers followed Miss Garnet's Angel with Instances of the Number 3, which explores the bond that develops between a deceased man's wife and his mistress. A writer for the Atlantic Monthly praised it as a "superbly crafted" antiromance New York Times Book Review contributor Dana Kennedy observed that it is "both admirable and refreshing to read a coming-of-age novel about someone over 40." According to the Publishers Weekly reviewer, Miss Garnet's Angel 's "subtle depiction of a life touched by a heavenly spirit carries not a hint of cliché."
Though World and I reviewer Linda Simon felt that Miss Garnet's "dawning of wisdom … does not quite ring true," many critics found the novel skillfully and sensitively written. Julia Garnet also encounters an angel through whom she begins to discover the joys in life that had previously eluded her. The father hires a young man to accompany his son, not realizing that this companion is really the Angel Raphael, who watches over the boy. In this tale from the Apocrypha, Tobit of Nenevah, a poor man of good faith who is blind, sends his son Tobias to a faraway city to retrieve money that Tobit had deposited there. There, she discovers a series of paintings in a local church that depict the story of Tobias and the Angel Raphael. The novel, described by a Publishers Weekly contributor as an "unpretentious gem of a book," tells the story of Julia Garnet, a middle-aged Englishwoman who retires from her teaching job after the death of her friend Harriet and travels to Venice. A trained psychoanalyst as well as a former university literature teacher, Vickers achieved a surprise success with her debut book, Miss Garnet's Angel, which became a word-of-mouth best seller in Britain. The relationships among psychology, religion, and art serve as recurring themes in Salley Vickers's well-received novels. Where Three Roads Meet, Cannongate (London, England), 2007. The Other Side of You, Farrar, Straus & Giroux (New York, NY), 2007. Golightly's Holiday, Farrar, Straus & Giroux (New York, NY), 2004. Instances of the Number 3, Farrar, Straus & Giroux ( New York, NY), 2002.
Miss Garnet's Angel, Carroll & Graf ( New York, NY), 2000.
Has taught literature in university and in adult education programs.
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