'Sometimes I think that was the happiest day of my life, those hours of
heat and silence and colour, along with David high up on the moor. But
then I remember that I have said that of many other days, so I cannot be
sure.'
A female narrator looks back on her childhood in a coming-of-age novel
set before the First World War. Ruan is an intelligent and imaginative
child, who gradually comes to understand the nuances of the adult world
around her, as she moves from the Manse, under the strict rule of her
father, a non-conformist minister, to Cobbetts, her mother's ancestral
home, under the tutelage of her Uncle Alaric, and back to the
guardianship of Rosie Day at Bolton House high up on the moor above the
town where she was born. Her young life is shaped by a series of
tragedies, but also the warmth of enduring friendships, particularly
with David, her dearest friend who shares her love of the wild expanse
and colors of the moor.
British Library Women Writers 1940's.
Part of a curated collection of forgotten works by early to mid-century
women writers, the British Library Women Writers series highlights the
best middlebrow fiction from the 1910s to the 1960s, offering escapism,
popular appeal, and plenty of period detail to amuse, surprise, and
inform.