**Literary Award Winner: W.H. Heinemann Award (1954)
In his delicate and perceptive study of early adolescence L.P. Hartley evokes a young boy's traumatic initiation into the adult world of passion, deception and hypocrisy.
A man in his sixties looks back on his boyhood for the first time in fifty years, recalling events that took place on a summer visit to a Norfolk country house at the turn of the century. Cautiously he unearths painful memories that have been 'buried for all these years, but they were there, I knew, the more complete, the more unforgettable for being carefully embalmed . . . '
It is the story of the loss of innocence, a loss so shattering and profound that it breeds a lasting mistrust of life.
Condition: Scattered minor marks to cover with light wear to edges. Light creasing through spine. Crossed through name and book shop stamp inside front cover. Tanned pages, minimal creasing. Scattered marks to outside edge of page block. Intact in acceptable readable condition.