Gardam, Jane: Crusoe's Daughter

In 1904, when she was six, Polly Flint went to live with her two holy aunts at the yellow house by the marsh - so close to the sea that it seemed to toss like a ship, so isolated that she might have been marooned on an island. And there she stayed for eighty-one years, while the century raged around her, while lamplight and Victorian order became chaos and nuclear dred. Crusoe's Daughter , ambitious, moving and wholly original, is her story. 'Jane Gardam is at her most characteristic and briliant' Victoria Glendinning, Sunday Times 'Engaging and witty' Observer 'Touching, terribly sad, fu nny: a smashing novel' The Times 'Fresh and vivid . . . comic, touching, eccentric' TLS