"During summer games of hide and seek Harriet falls in love with Vesey and his elusive, teasing ways. When he goes to Oxford, she cherishes his photograph and waits for the letter that never comes. Years pass, and Harriet stifles her imaginings; with a husband and daughter, she excels at respectability. But then Vesey reappears, and her marriage seems to melt away. Harriet is older, it is much too late, but she is still in love with him."
That's Elizabeth Taylor's 1951 novel A Game of Hide and Seek
Recognising that some of us had trouble with Troubles, and without wishing to pre-empt next week's discussion, that The Bridge ... could fall a bit flat, as it were, I thought that for our next book we might return to the sort of territory occupied by Elizabeth Jenkins' marvellous The Tortoise and the Hare which went down so well last year.
This "story whose theme is love" and which "has something of the lucid delicacies of Persuasion together with, at moments, more than a touch of the fiery-icy strangeness of Wuthering Heights" (Elizabeth Bowen), may already be well known to many of you; it will be new to me (though I recognise the cover of this edition
Let's come back here to talk about the book from Saturday, 20th. November - copies should be easily found through shops, libraries, and online (The Book Depository has it at a very competitive price and offers free worldwide delivery). If you haven't read along with us before but would like to join in now, please do!
