Edith has been exiled from home after embarrassing herself and her friends. Into the rarefied atmosphere of the Hotel du Lac timidly walks Edith Hope, romantic novelist and holder of modest dreams. But among the pampered women and minor nobility Edith finds Mr Neville, and her chance to escape from a life of humiliating spinsterhood is renewed . She has refused to sacrifice her ideals and remains stubbornly single. 1999. Winner of the Booker Prize in 1984.