Published May 2012 288 pages, Paperback 198x130mm, Portrait ISBN-10: 1907429301 ISBN-13: 9781907429309
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During World War II, Honor Carmichael and her two young children are uprooted to Linfield, to join Honor’s husband Colin, a dapper, small-town doctor stationed at the military hospital. She is visited by her sister Claudia, whose fiancé, Andrew, waits to be invalided out of the Army.
Whilst Andrew dismisses himself as 'damaged goods', Colin becomes absorbed by the petty feuds and power games of uniformed life - most particularly with the arrival of Captain Herriot, a commando, and the C.O.'s current favourite. Apparently peripheral to this 'male pirouetting' Honor and Claudia are nevertheless deeply affected by this war - for its threat to notions of masculinity forces both women to reassess the roles they’re always played.
First published in 1945, this exploration of the crushing psychological effects of war was described by Stevie Smith as a sensitively and beautifully told story … perfectly drawn. This edition carries a new foreword by Sir Jonathan Miller C.B.E., the author's son.
Betty Miller - Betty Miller (1910-1965), novelist and biographer, was born in Cork to Jewish parents and lived most of her life in London.
Sir Jonathan Miller C.B.E - Sir Jonathan Miller has a breadth and level of achievement which is almost unknown in our age. A trained physician, he gained early fame in the comedy show Beyond the Fringe, before going on to become a renowned writer, theatre and opera director and sculptor.
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