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One Fine Day

Virago Modern Classics (Book 304)

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What to expect

'As profound as Katherine Mansfield, restrained as Jane Austen, sharp as Dorothy Parker' Independent

INTRODUCED BY NICOLA BEAUMAN

The lark rose in the brilliant air, higher, higher on its spun-glass spiral of song, knowing nothing of peace or war, accepting joyously the bounty of another day.

A hot summer's day in 1946. The village of Wealding is no longer troubled by distant sirens, yet the rusting coils of barbed wire are a reminder that something, some quality of life, has evaporated. Together again after years of separation, Laura and Stephen Marshall must find their way in an altered, shabbier world. Their rambling garden refuses to be tamed, the house seems perceptibly to crumble. Hour by hour, as the glorious weather holds, the Marshalls and their daughter Victoria are preoccupied by the small pleasures and irritations of everyday life. But alone on a hillside, as evening falls, Laura comes to see how much could have been lost - and how much the future might still hold.

Exquisitely written and achingly poignant, One Fine Day is an unforgettable portrait of a world, and a marriage, changed forever by war - perfect for fans of Small Pleasures and A Month in the Country.


'This short novel lyrically evokes the effect war has had on a small English village and, in particular, on one marriage . . . Beautifully written, it's a tribute to the women who held everything together as their men marched away' Daily Mail

Critics Review

Mollie Panter-Downes, a wartime voice to treasure . . . virtually forgotten these days, her work provides an unforgettably vivid impression of life in the second world war
Guardian
Mollie Panter-Downes is as profound as Katherine Mansfield, restrained as Jane Austen, sharp as Dorothy Parker
Independent
Author Mollie Panter-Downes
Narrator Ali Mylon
Series Virago Modern Classics
Duration 6 hours and 17 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9780349021294
Format Audiobook
Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
Genre Classic fiction, Family life fiction, Fiction: general and literary, Historical fiction, Modern and contemporary fiction
Availability AU, GB, IE

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