Elizabeth and Lily [Paperback]

Spanning 30 years from 1886 to 1917, this novel, first published in 1997, follows the lives of two women from different ends of the social scale. They are reunited as adults and find that their friendship helps them through the bitterness and cruelty of war, and the legacies of their own childhoods.

Somewhere between Sarah's Water'sThe Night Watchand William Boyd'sAny Human Heart, friendship transcends class divides and the cruelty of war.

Hilary Bailey is a British writer and editor, born in 1936. She is the author of a biography of Vera Brittain, she edited volumes 7-10 of the 'New Worlds Quarterly' series and among her varied works are 19 books of fiction, including famouslyMrs Rochester, the sequel toJane Eyreand most recently,Fifty- First State(2008).

She has just completed her latest book, and is now working on a drama, with Leonora Rose-Aqotu, centred on the life of Caribbean slave, Mary Prince.