Sylvia Townsend  Warner

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The Corner That Held Them

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A classic, whose resonance deepens inside the reader in proportion to its austere, luminous discretion. Also, as it happens, a work of high, frequent comedy.  As an act of imagined history this novel has few rivals

A spellbinding piece of historical fiction-spare, luminous. . . . One starts rereading as soon as one has reached the last page

A magnificent recreation of the life of a medieval convent

Sylvia Townsend Warner's portrayal of a fourteenth-entury nunnery is widely considered to be one of the greatest historical novels of all time. An often hilarious ode to community living, it is also a poignant, delicate exploration of spirituality's relationship to the material world.

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'One of the great British novels of the twentieth century: a narrative of extraordinary reach, power and beauty' Sarah Waters 
 
The nuns who enter a medieval Norfolk convent are told to renounce the world, but the world still finds ways to trouble them, whether it is through fire, floods, pestilence, a collapsing spire, jealous rivalries, a priest with a secret or a plague of caterpillars. As we follow their daily lives over three centuries, this masterpiece of historical fiction re-creates a world run by women. 
 
'As an act of imagined history this novel has few rivals. Also, as it happens, a work of high, frequent comedy' George Steiner, The Times Literary Supplement 
 
'Spellbinding . . . One starts rereading as soon as one has reached the last page' Sunday Times 
 
'Magnificent' Philip Hensher, Daily Telegraph

Sylvia Townsend Warner (1893-1978) grew up in rural Devonshire before moving to London and writing her debut novel, Lolly Willowes (1926). With her partner Valentine Ackland, she was active in the Communist Party and served in the Red Cross during the Spanish Civil War. Her novels include Mr Fortune's Maggot, The True Heart, Summer Will Show, After the Death of Don Juan, The Corner That Held Them and The Flint Anchor.

The Corner That Held Them

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A classic, whose resonance deepens inside the reader in proportion to its austere, luminous discretion. Also, as it happens, a work of high, frequent comedy. As an act of imagined history this novel has few rivals

A spellbinding piece of historical fiction-spare, luminous. . . . One starts rereading as soon as one has reached the last page

A magnificent recreation of the life of a medieval convent

About Sylvia Townsend Warner

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