Jane Gardam has quite perfectly captured a bygone era as she tells this tale of three young women who have just left school in the summer of 1946 and are preparing for university. It begins so optimistically , yet as each girl has her own obstacle to overcome, I began to feel quite saddened that their bright hopes for the future were fading and wondered if they would succeed.
But her mother in the taxi caught up with Hetty thundering along to the station beneath her haversack, like Quasimodo along the Excursion Walk.
'Oh, Hetty!' she beseeched, through the taxi's window. 'Oh, Hetty, do let me come. Hester? I'm so sorry. I do keep doing the wrong thing, I always did. Do just let me come so far on the train with you. I'm so sorry to have butted in again.'
