‘Long ago in 1945 all the nice people in England were poor, allowing for exceptions’

It is 1945: a time of cultural and political change, and also one of slender means. Spark’s evocative and sharply drawn narrative focuses on a group of women living together in a hostel in Kensington who face new challenges in uncertain times.

The novel is at once dramatic and character-based and shows Muriel Spark at the height of her literary powers.