Frost in May - A Virago modern classic Author:Antonia White The Convent of the Five Wounds, where Nanda Grey is sent when she is nine, is on the edge of London - but in 1908 it is a world unto itself. For the young girls receiving a Catholic education behind its walls, religion is a nationality, conformity an entire way of life. In this intense, troubled atmosphere - caught to perfection by a superb writ... more »er - passionate friendships are the only deviation. Nanda is thirteen, a normal, quick-witted, spirited girl, when, catastrophically, she breaks the rules and pays too large a price for her transgression.
First published in 1933, 'Frost in May' has been compared by critics to Colette's 'Claudine a l'Ecole' and to Joyce's 'Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'.« less