S.T. Haymon: ‘The Quivering Tree: An East Anglian Childhood 2’

Description

The second of S. T. Haymon’s glorious childhood memoirs about growing up in and around Norwich in the 1920s.

After 12-year-old Sylvia’s father dies, her mother quickly sells up and moves to London. But Sylvia has no intention of leaving her beloved Norwich and soon finds herself lodging with two of her teachers, the misses Locke and Gosse: Their intentions however – along with those of her Machiavellian headmistress – may not have been as innocent as she first thought…

So begins a story of adolescent discovery and sexual politics, populated by a bizarre and often hilarious collection of people and events, written with a piercing eye for detail.

With a new introduction by Esther Freud, the joy, wit and keen observations of Haymon’s writing are celebrated here for a whole new audience.