A Compass Error by Sybille Bedford is ‘a powerful and merciless book – a classic coming of age novel.’ – Hilary Mantel
As the Second World War looms, Flavia is living in a small village in the South of France. She studies for her Oxford entrance, swims in the sea, eats at local cafés, and lives with all the confidence and relish of youth.
Drawn into the demi-monde of artists and writers, Flavia is awoken to the pleasures and complications of adult life. Her world is overturned when she becomes fascinated by Andrée – beautiful, sophisticated, yet manipulative – and is caught up in a devastating intrigue.
This is a dramatic companion novel to A Favourite of the Gods.
‘There will always be people for whom her books are part of their mind’s life, and people who are discovering her for the first time as if entering a lighted room.’ Victoria Glendinning
‘The lure of the sensual life, the picnics, lobster salad, hock and seltzer and going to the opera, in Italy, in summer . . .’ The Times
A Bath with a View
I once met Sybille Bedford. ‘Met’ is perhaps the wrong word; I pounced on her at a crowded Time-Life party and began raving about her novel A Legacy which I had just read. She looked at me...
Read moreBruised, Shocked, but Elated
I first met Sybille Bedford in London in the early 1980s when an old friend of mine, Patrick Woodcock, who at the time was Sybille’s doctor, invited us both to dinner. As a keen admirer of...
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