Description

Book Synopsis

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 where, with all the enthusiasm of the outsider, her desires and passions become only those the school permits. Her only deviation from total obedience is the passionate friendships she makes.

Convent life is perfectly captured - the smell of beeswax and incense; the petty cruelties of the nuns; the eccentricities of Nanda's school friends.



Trade Review
Frost in May is the unsurpassed novel of convent school life. This story of a clash between a determined young girl and an authoritarian regime is both perceptive and painfully emotional, convincing in every detail -- Hermione Lee * Observer *
Evelyn Waugh called [her] one of the very best novelists of the day - a title she still deserves -- Carol Shields
Intense, troubling, semi-miraculous ... IT is not the only school story to be a classic; but I can think of no other that is a work of art * Elizabeth Bowen *
A masterpiece. Beautifully written, it is a calm and factual record of the slow death of the soul -- Selina Hastings
A small masterpiece, the compelling and passionate story of young girls at a repressive religious school, told with such lyricism and elegant economy, such subtle understanding -- Tessa Hadley

Frost In May

    Product form

    A Paperback / softback by Antonia White, Tessa Hadley, Elizabeth Bowen

    £9.49

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    RRP £9.99 – you save £0.50 (5%)

    Order before 4pm tomorrow for delivery by Wed 30 Sep 2026.

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      Book details

      Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
      Published 3 August 2006
      ISBN-13 9781844083787
      978-1844083787
      ISBN-10 1844083780
      Also in:
      Contemporary Fiction

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      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 where, with all the enthusiasm of the outsider, her desires and passions become only those the school permits. Her only deviation from total obedience is the passionate friendships she makes.

      Convent life is perfectly captured - the smell of beeswax and incense; the petty cruelties of the nuns; the eccentricities of Nanda's school friends.



      Trade Review
      Frost in May is the unsurpassed novel of convent school life. This story of a clash between a determined young girl and an authoritarian regime is both perceptive and painfully emotional, convincing in every detail -- Hermione Lee * Observer *
      Evelyn Waugh called [her] one of the very best novelists of the day - a title she still deserves -- Carol Shields
      Intense, troubling, semi-miraculous ... IT is not the only school story to be a classic; but I can think of no other that is a work of art * Elizabeth Bowen *
      A masterpiece. Beautifully written, it is a calm and factual record of the slow death of the soul -- Selina Hastings
      A small masterpiece, the compelling and passionate story of young girls at a repressive religious school, told with such lyricism and elegant economy, such subtle understanding -- Tessa Hadley

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