Books in Virago modern classics series

New edition of the Smarties-Prize-winning story of escape and adventure, with wicked guardians, evil plots and a lively young female heroine. Now published into the First Modern Classics list, fantastic stories for young readers. When Dimanche is orphaned at the tender age of one, Chief Inspector Barry Bullpit advertises for any known relative to come forward. Unluckily for Dimanche, her real aunt does not see the message, but an evil money-grabbing imposter does. Dimanche, heir to an enormous fortune, is sent to live with the dreaded Valburga Vilemile, who tries to rid herself of Dimanche at every opportunity. But her lack of success is partly due to Dimanche's wits and courage, and partly to Polly Pugh, Dimanche's young and pretty nanny, who foils all Valpurga's attempts and helps Dimanche find long-term happiness with her real aunt. All the ingredients for a brilliant, attention-grabbing shorter novel are here; evil plots, kidnapping, wicked villains and gorgous heroines. Every chapter makes you want to shout 'Look behind you' or 'Oh no she doesn't' at almost every page turn.

Francis Marion Beynon’s autobiographical novel Aleta Dey is increasingly recognised as a small classic of early twentieth-century fiction. Beynon was a journalist and feminist much involved in public affairs in early twentieth-century Manitoba. In 1917, aged 33, she was forced to leave her job as a result of her open pacifism, and she soon moved to New York where she dropped out of the public eye. Aleta Dey, first published in 1919, tells in plain and affecting prose the story of a girl growing up in Manitoba, becoming politically conscious, and falling in love with McNair, a man of much more conventional views. The First World War brings a crisis for them both after McNair enlists as a soldier. Though Beynon was a Canadian, her spare, emotionally open prose may have less in common with that of other Canadian writers of the time than it does with the style of contemporaneous western American women writers such as Willa Cather and Laura Ingalls Wilder. Like Cather’s My Antonia, Beynon’s Aleta Dey resonates with prairie simplicity, passion, and strength.

Laura is happily married, a mother, and a successful novelist. Although prey to night terrors, she is adept at smoothing the disorder of reality into controlled prose. Interweaving memory, conversation, and reflection, Walking Naked telescopes the whole of Laura's life—childhood, marriages, triumphs, and disappointments—into a day in which the past and the present converge. It begins with a game of tennis played for duty rather than amusement and progresses, via an afternoon party of old friends and jaded emotions, to a bewildering visit to Laura's son, who is imprisoned on a drugs charge. At its close, the possibility of death within the family brings unresolved conflicts to center stage, and Laura strips herself of the posturing and self-deceit with which she has cloaked her vulnerability. Continually surprising, witty, and often disquieting, this is one of Nina Bawden's most impressive novels.