The Enchanted April, by Elizabeth Von Amim, is a story of four women, all seeking a place to get away. A discreet advertisement in The Times, addressed "To Those who Appreciate Wistaria and Sunshine," offers a small medieval castle for rent, above a bay on the Italian Riviera. Four very different women - the dishevelled and downtrodden Mrs Wilkins, the sad, sweet-faced Mrs Arbuthnot, the formidable widow Mrs Fisher and the ravishing socialite Lady Caroline Dester - are drawn to the shores of the Mediterranean that April. As each, in turn, blossoms in the warmth of the Italian spring and finds...