ROSIE : SCENES FROM A VANISHED LIFE

Rose Tremain grew up in post-war London, a city still partly in ruins, where both food and affection were fiercely rationed. The girl known then as Rosie' and her sister Jo spent their days longing for their grandparents' farm, buried deep in the Hampshire countryside, a green paradise of feasts and freedom.

But when Rosie is ten years old, everything changes. She and Jo lose their father, their London house, their school, their friends and are dispatched to a freezing boarding-school in Hertfordshire. But slowly the teenage Rosie escapes from the cold world of the Fifties, into a place of inspiration and mischief, of loving friendships and dedicated teachers, where a young writer is suddenly ready to be born.