Rosamond Lehmann was born the day after Queen Victoria's funeral. When the First World War broke out she was 13, on holiday with her family on the Isle of Wight. The imminence of hostilities had put an end to a plan, much dreaded by Rosamond, to send her and her sister to stay with relatives in Germany. From her own point of view the war was 'a personal and miraculous reprieve': 'of the world crisis, I remember only that sudden emptiness of the beach and the expression on my father's face as he sat reading the papers all day.'

LRB 8 August 2002 | PDF Download