Author(s): Frank Moorhouse

Fiction Paperback

'An irreducibly rich, sustained and complex work of the imagination.' THE INDEPENDENT Moorhouse has for a long time been one of the most original and professional of Australian writers in the world of literature and English. Grand Days is the summit of this achievement.' GEOFFREY DUTTON, AUSTRALIAN BOOK REVIEW 'Edith Campbell Berry is one of the most winning women in contemporary fiction...There is colour galore - a risque interlude in Paris, a Geneva riot, friendships made and broken, moments of real pathos and terror. The book would make an extraordinarily glamorous movie, and most actresses would brawl to play sexy, smart, plucky Edith.' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 'Funny, scary and extremely sexy...Truly a grand book.' UK VOGUE A contemporary romantic Australian masterpiece, Grand Days tells of the moral and sexual awakening of an idealistic young Australian woman working in the diplomatic corps in Europe in the aftermath of World War I. On a train from Paris to Geneva, Edith Campbell Berry meets Major Ambrose Westwood in the dining car, and allows him to kiss her passionately.Their early intimacy binds them together once they reach Geneva and their posts at the newly created League of Nations. There, a heady idealism prevails over Edith and her young colleagues, and nothing seems beyond their grasp, certainly not world peace. The exuberance of the times carries over into Geneva nights: Edith is drawn into a glamorous and dangerous underworld where, coaxed by Ambrose, she becomes more and more sexually adventurous. Vivid, funny and wise, full of shocks of revelation and recognition, Grand Days is a dazzling evocation of a golden bygone era and an unerring portrait of a woman of her times - as well as a stunning novel which speaks vividly to readers today.