God On The Rocks (Winner Of The Whitbread Novel Of The Year

Description: During one glorious summer between the wars, the realities of life and the sexual ritual dance of the adult world creep into the life of young Margaret Marsh. Her father, preaching the doctrine of the unsavoury Primal Saints; her mother, bitterly nostalgic for what might have been; Charles and Binkie, anchored in the past and a game of words; dying Mrs Frayling and Lydia the maid, given to the vulgar enjoyment of life; all contribute to Margaret's shattering moment of truth. And when the storm breaks, it is not only God who is on the rocks as the summer hurtles towards drama, tragedy, and a touch of farce.

Review: 'A meticulously observed modern classic' INDEPENDENT 'Exact, piquant and comical' OBSERVER 'Tantalising ... Funny, sharp' DAILY TELEGRAPH Jane Gardam has a spectacular gift for detail of the local and period kind, and for details which make characters so subtly unpredictable that they ring true' TLS

Author Biography: Jane Gardam has been awarded the Heywood Hill Literary Prize for a lifetime's contribution to the enjoyment of literature; has twice won a Whitbread Award and has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

*A moving, Booker shortlisted story of a girl's coming of age, beautifully rejacketed for this reissue