Lee Langley

Sir Archie and Cuckoo Peveril have lived in elegant splendour on Cap Ferrat since the end of the war. But the heady days of extravagant socialising have gradually dwindled, and for Cuckoo the villa has become a prison. Then an attractive young couple arrive, resurrecting the tensions and sexual rivalry between Archie and Cuckoo, and forcing all four to learn about themselves.

Will they starve her? Shave her head? Force her to wear a hair shirt? Elspeth's friends and family react with horror, grief and even derision to her desire to become a nun. She experiences her parents' hurt, her fiancee's feeling of betrayal, her friends' incomprehension - and her own obstinate joy.

1982. A shop worker saves money all year for a holiday in France, using a magazine as guide to the mode of dress and manners of behaviour she thinks expected of a wealthy woman.