**SPOILERS**
A boy finds himself entangled in a scandalous affair crossing the rigid class divide of 1900 England. He acts as go-between, carrying notes between the daughter of the wealthy family with whom he is staying for the summer and a local farmer. The tension mounts as the characters observe the starched customs and manners of Victorian England for as long as they possibly can. The storms which end the long hot summer of 1900 with sudden violence seem to represent the shattering of Leo's childhood innocence and the shocking fall-out from the affair. Highly recommended. Also beautifully adapted into a 1970 film starring Julie Christie and Alan Bates with a marvellous performance by Margaret Leighton as the ever-watchful, neurotic Mrs. Maudsley.
A boy finds himself entangled in a scandalous affair crossing the rigid class divide of 1900 England. He acts as go-between, carrying notes between the daughter of the wealthy family with whom he is staying for the summer and a local farmer. The tension mounts as the characters observe the starched customs and manners of Victorian England for as long as they possibly can. The storms which end the long hot summer of 1900 with sudden violence seem to represent the shattering of Leo's childhood innocence and the shocking fall-out from the affair. Highly recommended. Also beautifully adapted into a 1970 film starring Julie Christie and Alan Bates with a marvellous performance by Margaret Leighton as the ever-watchful, neurotic Mrs. Maudsley.
Spark's mesmerizing portrait of post-war London. A group of young women share their lives, loves and laughter, blissfully unaware of the unexploded bomb in their midst which might shatter their idyll at any moment. Spark effortlessly evokes a more innocent era and captures the randomness of life and death. A slim, haunting and poetic novel.
This is Spark's biting and bitchy take on old age. A comic novel in which the shadow of death looms large. As the characters' bodies and minds fail they receive anonymous phone calls saying "remember you must die" sparking hilariously varying reactions. Black humour at its best. The irreplaceable Spark.