The Flight of the Maidens by Jane Gardam

The Flight of the Maidens

Jane Gardam

Jane Gardam has quite perfectly captured a bygone era as she tells this tale of three young women who have just left school in the summer of 1946 and are preparing for university. It begins so optimistically , yet as each girl has her own obstacle to overcome, I began to feel quite saddened that their bright hopes for the future were fading and wondered if they would succeed.

Extract
'Well,' Kitty said 'at least this Mrs Satterly sounds a perfectly good sort of woman and it's a clean farm.'
'How on earth do you know, Ma?'
There was silence. 'Oh well. Well. I got the vicar to write to the vicar there. You gave me the address you know, Hetty. He's going to come and see you.'
'He's what! A vicar? There? Come and see me? That's it, then. How dare you, Ma! I'm going by myself ....'

But her mother in the taxi caught up with Hetty thundering along to the station beneath her haversack, like Quasimodo along the Excursion Walk.
'Oh, Hetty!' she beseeched, through the taxi's window. 'Oh, Hetty, do let me come. Hester? I'm so sorry. I do keep doing the wrong thing, I always did. Do just let me come so far on the train with you. I'm so sorry to have butted in again.'

Parallels
  • Land Girls by Angela Huth
  • God on the Rocks by Jane Gardam