The Corner That Held Them Av Sylvia Townsend Warner

<p><b>''One of the great British novels of the twentieth century: a narrative of extraordinary reach, power and beauty'' Sarah Waters</b><br><br>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.<br><br>''As an act of imagined history this novel has few rivals. Also, as it happens, a work of high, frequent comedy'' George Steiner, <i>The Times Literary Supplement<br></i><br>''Spellbinding . . . One starts rereading as soon as one has reached the last page'' <i>Sunday Times<br></i><br>''Magnificent'' Philip Hensher, <i>Daily Telegraph</i></p>