Written in a French style that long defied successful translation Cocteau was always a poet no matter what we was writing the book came into its own for English-language readers in 1955 when this translation was completed by Rosamund Lehmann. It is a masterpiece of the art of translation of which the Times Literary Supplement said: "It has the rare merit of reading as though it were an English original." Lehrmann was able to capture the essence of Cocteau's strange, necromantic imagination and to bring fully to life in English his story of a brother and sister, orphaned in adolescence, who...

A diary for her innermost thoughts, a china ornament, a ten-shilling note, and a roll of flame-coloured silk for her first evening dress: these are the gifts Olivia Curtis receives for her seventeenth birthday. She anticipates her first dance, the greatest yet most terrifying event of her restricted social life, with tremulous uncertainty and excitement. For her pretty, charming elder sister Kate, the dance is certain to be a triumph, but what will it be for shy, awkward Olivia?
Exploring the daydreams and miseries attendant upon even the most innocent of social events, Rosamond Lehmann...

Two sisters: Madeleine and Dinah. One husband: Rickie Masters. For many
years now, Dinah, exotic and sensual, has conducted a clandestine affair with
Rickie. Madeleine, calm and resolute, has accepted that her marriage has been of limited success. Rickie's sudden death makes widows of both sisters in this highly imaginative novel that explores with extraordinary insight the sublimity, the rivalry and the pain of personal relationships.
'She makes a mood, an atmosphere, which is never forgotten . . . The inner voice of women talking to themselves about their love affairs, knowing...

Grace Fairfax lives with her dull, conventional husband Tom in a grey manufacturing town in the north of England. At thirty-four she finds that her external life of dreary routine fails to match up to her lush, wistful and dreamy internal life. Norah, her energetic and chaotic friend, is equally settled in her own marriage to an irritable university professor.

Then Hugh Miller and his sister Claire descend upon the quiet town. On all four, the hypnotic charm of these two visitors exerts an enchanting spell. And after their departure, life - having been violently disrupted - will never be...

Rosamond Lehmann s only autobiographical work recreates the events that shaped her life from childhood to motherhood to the death of her daughter Rosamond Lehmann was born during a violent February thunderstorm and lived a sheltered, privileged life with her parents, brother, and sisters. Writing from the distance of decades, she reveals why no adult would ever apologize to a child, shares thoughts on her first conscious memory, and discusses the taboo subjects of birth, death, physical and sexual functions. Later, she recounts the tragedy that rocked her world as a mother. A blackbird with a...

Two sisters fall in love with the same man in this World War II era novel drawn from Rosamond Lehmann s experience with an ill-fated affair of her own Rickie Masters is married to Madeleine, who is sitting out the war in the country with their children. Their domestic serenity is shattered when Rickie falls in love with Madeleine s sister, Dinah, and they begin a clandestine, guilt-ridden affair. When Madeleine discovers their infidelity, accusations are hurled and hard choices are made. Then, a year before the war officially ends, tragedy strikes, and it is only after an estrangement of...

This collection of stories by one of Britain s most beloved novelists depicts domestic life during World War II as seen through the eyes of both children and adults In The Red-haired Miss Daintreys, four six-foot-tall sisters capture the imagination of young Rebecca when she and her family are on holiday. Beautifully crafted and informed by Lehmann s eye for telling detail, it is a moving meditation on familial ties, romantic love, and the end of an era. In When the Waters Came and A Dream of Winter, both the deprivations of war and a swarm of bees take their toll on the inhabitants of a...

A woman searches for a fresh start on a remote Caribbean island in this sequel to Rosamond Lehmann s classic "The Ballad and the Source" The year is 1933. After a heart-wrenching betrayal by her married lover, Rebecca Landon leaves London for a tiny island in the Caribbean. There, she meets a colony of expatriates, including the voluble Captain Cunningham and his wife, Ellie, who were the first white settlers on the isle. She also meets Johnny, a married former pilot who was crippled in the war and now lives as a recluse. Drawn together by their mutual pain and sorrow, he and Rebecca are soon...

A young girl befriends an elderly woman during the First World War in this remarkable novel by one of Britain s best-loved authors Sibyl Jardine, the former best friend of Rebecca Landon s grandmother, has recently returned to the Priory, her home at the top of a hill. Rebecca is instantly drawn in by Sibyl s magnetic personality and blunt, shocking manner. Decades earlier, Sibyl had left her husband Charles for another man and, as a result, lost her daughter Ianthe. Now she is finally about to meet her three grandchildren, who will become an integral part of Rebecca s life as she journeys...

A novel of searing honesty and a passionate portrayal of forbidden love. Published as part of a beautifully designed series to mark the 40th anniversary of the Virago Modern Classics.