‘A meticulously observed modern classic’ Independent
During one glorious summer between the wars, the realities of life and the sexual ritual dance of the adult world creep into the life of young Margaret Marsh. Her father, preaching the doctrine of the unsavoury Primal Saints; her mother, bitterly nostalgic for what might have been; Charles and Binkie, anchored in the past and a game of words; dying Mrs Frayling and Lydia the maid, given to the vulgar enjoyment of life; all contribute to Margaret’s shattering moment of truth. And when the storm breaks, it is not only God who is on the rocks as the summer hurtles towards drama, tragedy, and a touch of farce.
‘Tantalising, funny, sharp’ Daily Telegraph
‘So charming a novel that you don’t want to give away a single one of the many twists of its plot’ New York Times
‘Jane Gardam has a spectacular gift’ Times Literary Supplement
‘Exact, piquant and comical’ Observer
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Reviews
Gardam orchestrates the subtle evolution of character and plot with Olympian omniscience and wry humor
So charming a novel that you don't want to give away a single one of the many twists of its plot... We are in the hands of a master storyteller
Marvellous... A wonder
Tantalising, funny, sharp
Gardam is a unique and wonderful writer, mixing no-nonsense presentations of heartbreak, despair, and uncertainty, with equally dry but hilarious bouts of humor, desire, love, friendship, and even happiness, fleeting as that might be
A meticulously observed modern classic
This treasure should send readers back for all of [Gardam's] books
Jane Gardam has a spectacular gift for detail of the local and period kind, and for details which make characters so subtly unpredictable that they ring true
Gardam doesn't waste a word, and the story reads as fresh and relevant now as when it was originally published
Exact, piquant and comical