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I ought to tell you at the beginning that I am not quite normal having had a violent experience at the age of nine´

Jessica Vye´s ´violent experience´ colours her schooldays and her reaction to the world around her- a confining world of Order Marks, wartime restrictions, viyella dresses, nicely-restrained essays and dusty tea shops. For Jessica she has been told that she is ´beyond all possible doubt´, a born writer. With her inability to conform, her absolute compulsion to tell the truth and her dedication to accurately noting her experiences, she knows this anyway. But what she doesn´t know is that the experiences that sustain and enrich her burgeoning talent will one day lead to a new- and entirely unexpected- reality.

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Gardam, Jane
Jane Gardam has been awarded the Heywood Hill Literary Prize for a lifetime´s contribution to the enjoyment of literature; has twice won a Whitbread Award and has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

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