Rosie: Scenes from a Vanished Life

'Rose Tremain turns to non-fiction for the first time with this lyrical account of her life up to the age of 18... wonderfully vivid - distinctive, like being donated a set of dreams.' - Claire Harman, Evening Standard

Rose Tremain grew up in post-war London, a city of grey austerity, still partly in ruins, where both food and affection were fiercely rationed.

The girl known then as `Rosie' and her sister Jo spent their days longing for their grandparents' farm, buried deep in the Hampshire countryside: a green paradise of feasts and freedom, where they could at last roam and dream. But when Rosie is ten years old, everything changes.

In Rosie, the Orange Prize-winning author of The Road Home, Restoration and The Gustav Sonata unfurls her trademark insight and precision to regard her own coming of age. Rose Tremain’s account also expertly sums the death knell of establishment Britain, where 1950s well-to-do schoolgirls were prepared for a glum marrying-off. Unsentimental and brimming with observational candour, Rosie opens the door to a world swept away by the social revolution to come.