Virago Modern Classic Book Club: Frost in May by Antonia White

Book of the Month: Frost in May by Antonia White

This May our book of the month is Antonia White’s Frost in May, the first Virago Modern Classic ever published, in 1978.

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.

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Click here to discover what we’ve read so far this year.