Overview

This delightful novel describes the post-war summer of 1946 - and follows the growing-up of three young women in the months between leaving school and taking up their scholarships at university. Una Vane, whose widowed mother runs a hairdressing salon in her front room ('Maison Vane Glory - Where Permanent Waves are Permanent'), goes bicycling with Ray, the boy who delivers the fish and milk. Hetty Fallowes struggles to become independent of her possessive, loving, tactless mother. And Lieselotte Klein, who had arrived in 1939 on a train from Hamburg, uncovers tragedy in the past and magic in the present. Rooted in the north of England, The Flight of the Maidens is peopled with extraordinary characters, who are evoked with all the humour, compassion and eye for detail that mark Jane Gardam as one of Britain's most gifted and original novelists.

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9781489493835

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Reviews

'Jane Gardam, as ever, shapes her narrative with wit and aplomb ... intelligent, inspiriting and entertaining.' -- The Independent 'As a celebration of the rites of passage it rings diamond true. It is light, witty, sharp, yet understanding and sympathetic. It is also thoroughly enjoyable.' -- The Scotsman 'Gardam blends memory and imagination, intellect and humour, to evoke unsentimentally a vanished England, setting it in the context of the wider world and capturing the bittersweet excitement of leaving childhood behind.' -- The Daily Telegraph

`Jane Gardam, as ever, shapes her narrative with wit and aplomb ... intelligent, inspiriting and entertaining.' -- The Independent `As a celebration of the rites of passage it rings diamond true. It is light, witty, sharp, yet understanding and sympathetic. It is also thoroughly enjoyable.' -- The Scotsman

Author Information

Jane Mary Gardam OBE FRSL is an English writer of children's and adult fiction. She also writes reviews for The Spectator and The Telegraph, and writes for BBC radio. She lives in Kent, Wimbledon, and Yorkshire. June Barrie is a British actress who has appeared on television in Casualty and Heartbeat. She works primarily in theatre and radio and narrated the 1980s television series Maggie's Moor. An experienced audiobook narrator, she has lent her voice to children's stories, thrillers and romances.

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