Antonia White

Sequel to: 'The Sugar House' (1351); When Clara Batchelor’s brief marriage to Archie ends she returns to her parents’ home, hoping for comfort and support. She finds the Catholic household oppressive, however, and longs to escape to the outside world, but when she begins a passionate affair her fragile identity cracks.

Nanda Gray, the daughter of a Catholic convert, is nine when she is sent to the Convent of Five Wounds. Quick-witted, resilient and eager to please, she accepts this closed world. Her only deviation from total obedience is the passionate friendships she makes.

Clara is the beloved daughter of a devoted, though authoritarian father and an imperious, devout Catholic mother. Set against the backdrop of the First World War, Clara experiences the vagaries of adolescence and, faced with the first tragedy of her adult life, she realises that neither parents, nor faith can protect her from change.

The year is 1920. Clara Batchelor, an actress with a touring repertory company, is in love with the wholly unsuitable Stephen Tye. When Stephen betrays her, Clara agrees to marry Archie, who she discarded four years before, a desperate attempt by Clara to rekindle the safety of childhood. But neither of them are children any more and their dream sugar house begins to dissolve.