Mary Wesley

Behind the large house, the fragrant camomile lawn stretches down to the Cornish cliffs. Here, in the dizzying heat of August 1939, five cousins have gathered at their aunt''s house for their annual ritual of a holiday. For most of them it is the last summer of their youth, with the heady exhilarations and freedoms of lost innocence, as well as the fears of the coming war. The Camomile Lawn moves from Cornwall to London and back again, over the years, telling the stories of the cousins, their family and their friends, united by shared losses and lovers, by family ties and the absurd conditions imposed by war as their paths cross and recross over the years. Mary Wesley presents an extraordinarily vivid and lively picture of wartime London: the rationing, imaginatively circumvented the fallen houses the parties, the new-found comforts of sex, the desperate humour of survival - all of it evoked with warmth, clarity and stunning wit. And through it all, the cousins and their friends try to hold on to the part of themselves that laughed and played dangerous games on that camomile lawn.

Seventeen-year-old Juno Marlowe has just waved off to war the two young men she has loved for the best part of her life when the air raid sirens begin to wail out across London. She is rescued from this nightmare by a gaunt stranger called Evelyn, frail and older than his years.

Henry Tillotson, a generous, genial man who inherited his fathers philanthropic attitude along with his beautiful house, rescues Margaret from a disastrous marriage in Egypt and brings her home to th

For the whole of Roses respectable married life, she had kept faith with both men. To Ned she was a perfect wife and mother of his son. To Mylo, Rose was an unconventional mistress, answering his erratic calls. After Neds funeral Rose looks back on a life of dual constancy, passion, humour, and the ambiguities of love - and chooses her future.

Flora Trevelyan is a ten-year-old misfit, despised by her selfish and indolent parents, and left to wander the streets of a small French town whilst her parents prepare to depart for life in colonia

A train screeches to a halt in the middle of the English countryside and, observed by her fascinated fellow travellers, a woman climbs down and rushes to the aid of a sheep, stranded on its back and

Agosto de 1939. En la casa familiar de Cornualles se juntan como todos los veranos los cinco primos Cuthbertson: el mayor, Oliver, acaba de volver, herido, de la Guerra Civil española; la menor, Sophy, tiene diez años y esta locamente enamorada de el. La guerra los separa y los marca para siempre. Cuarenta y cinco años despues, se reunen en un funeral. Un vertiginoso carrusel de amantes, exclusivos o compartidos, gira en torno a la muerte y al horror, a las casas destruidas y a la Inglaterra poblada de antisemitas y filonazis, pero se impone a todo con un insaciable e insolente vitalismo.

Agosto de 1939. En la casa familiar de Cornualles, en la cima de un acantilado, se juntan como todos los veranos los cinco primos Cuthbertson: el mayor, Oliver, acaba de volver, herido, de la Guerra Civil española; la menor, Sophy, tiene diez años y esta locamente enamorada de el. Los juegos de su dorada juventud estan a punto, sin embargo, de concluir: la guerra los separa y los marca para siempre. Esos seis años de batallas y bombardeos se cobran algunas bajas, pero quienes sobreviven lo hacen, por asi decirlo, a lo grande. Especialmente las mujeres, que descubren que solo viviendo contra las normas es posible vivir: Fue el modo de rebelarnos contra nuestra educacion, declara una de ellas; y podria añadir: contra la moral. Cuarenta y cinco años despues, se reunen en un funeral y recuerdan, porque el recuerdo viene a iluminar la imagen que en su dia no estaba clara. Un vertiginoso carrusel de amantes, exclusivos o compartidos, gira en torno a la muerte y al horror, a las casas destruidas y a la Inglaterra poblada de antisemitas y filonazis, pero se impone a todo con un insaciable e insolente vitalismo. Mary Wesley no empezo a escribir hasta pasados los setenta años, cuando lo hizo su familia dejo de hablarle, pero en catorce años publico diez novelas de las que se vendieron millones de ejemplares. El cesped de manzanilla (1984), la segunda de ellas, es un magnifico ejemplo de su espiritu critico y de su vision tumultuosa de la libertad sexual, ademas de una novela realmente virtuosa en el manejo del tiempo, la soltura del dialogo y la construccion de personajes.