'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

*A moving, Booker shortlisted story of a girl's coming of age, beautifully rejacketed for this reissue

About the Author
Jane Gardam is the only writer to have been twice awarded the Whitbread/Costa Prize for Best Novel of the Year, for The Queen of the Tambourine and The Hollow Land. She also holds a Heywood Hill Literary Prize for a lifetime's contribution to the enjoyment of literature. She is the author of five volumes of acclaimed stories: Black Faces, White Faces (David Higham Prize and the Royal Society of Literature's Winifred Holtby Prize); The Pangs of Love (Katherine Mansfield Prize); Going into a Dark House (Silver Pen Award from PEN); Missing the Midnight; and The People on Privilege Hill. Her novels include God on the Rocks, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Faith Fox; The Flight of the Maidens; the bestselling Old Filth, which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize in 2005; The Man in the Wooden Hat; and Last Friends. Jane Gardam was born in Yorkshire. She now lives in east Kent.

Reviews
A meticulously observed modern classic * Independent *
Tantalising, funny, sharp * Daily Telegraph *
Exact, piquant and comical * Observer *
Marvellous... A wonder * Vogue *
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 * Times Literary Supplement *
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 * New York Times *
Gardam orchestrates the subtle evolution of character and plot with Olympian omniscience and wry humor * Boston Globe *
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 * Huffington Post *
This treasure should send readers back for all of [Gardam's] books * Library Journal (starred review) *
Gardam doesn't waste a word, and the story reads as fresh and relevant now as when it was originally published * Publishers Weekly *



Book Information
ISBN 9780349121499
Author Jane Gardam
Format Paperback
Page Count 224
Imprint Abacus
Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
Weight(grams) 155g
Dimensions(mm) 196mm * 126mm * 20mm