4 cassettes
Read by Lyn Redgrave
For Judith Dunbar, her first glimpse of Nancherrow, her friend Loveday's beautiful family estate on the Cornish coast, is love at first sight - the lush gardens, the welcoming house, the warm comfort of the rooms with their open fires and lovingly polished antique furniture - all spell unaccustomed luxury to Judith after the rigors of boarding school life.
She falls in love, too, with all Loveday's family. Glamorous Diana presides with languid elegance over an extended house party at which all the guests are witty and amusing. The reserved but kindly Colonel makes Judith as welcome as his own daughter; Loveday's brother Edward and sister Athena treat her as one of them. With their generosity and kindness, Judith grows from naive girl to confident young woman basking in the warmth of a surrogate family whose flame of love and affections burns brightly.
Bit it is a flame soon to be extinguished in the gathering storm of war. In the danger and deprivation of the 'forties, those sun-drenched Cornish days seem as distant as a dream. Many of the young people whose carefree laughter echoed around Nancherrow will laugh no more. And Judith herself has far to travel before at last . . . coming home.
