Frost in May is the novel which launched the Virago Modern Classics list. Published as part of a beautifully designed series to mark the 40th anniversary of the Virago Modern Classics.
Nanda Gray, the daughter of a Catholic convert, is nine when she is sent to the Convent of Five Wounds. Quick-witted, resilient and eager to please, she accepts this closed world where, with all the enthusiasm of the outsider, her desires and passions become only those the school permits. Her only deviation from total obedience is the passionate friendships she makes.
Convent life is perfectly captured - the smell of beeswax and incense; the petty cruelties of the nuns; the eccentricities of Nanda´s school friends.
With a new introduction by Tessa Hadley. Books included in the VMC 40th anniversary series include:
Frost in May by Antonia White
The Collected Stories of Grace Paley
Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault
The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter
The Weather in the Streets by Rosamond Lehmann
Deep Water by Patricia Highsmith
The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Heartburn by Nora Ephron
The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy
Memento Mori by Muriel Spark
A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor
About the Author
Antonia White (1899-1980) was educated at the Convent of the Sacred Heart at Roehampton before going to St Paul´s School for Girls and training for the stage at RADA. From 1924 until the Second World War she worked as a journalist. Among numerous volumes of short stories, fiction and autobiography, Antonia White published a celebrated quartet of novels linked by their heroine: Frost in May (1922), The Lost Traveller (1950), The Sugar House (1952) and Beyond the Glass (1954).