10:44am Tuesday 30th June 2009
IN 1848 Bess Hardemon starts as a teacher at a grim school (think Jane Eyre’s Lowood) and battles benefactors, parents, staff and endless committees to turn it into a success.
She is single-minded, determined and has time for little else in her life.
Meanwhile, in 1967, a bright girl studies at the school, falls in love, marries someone else and comes back to the same school as a teacher.
On the surface she and that revolutionary headmistress seem to have nothing in common at all. And yet...
As well as the intriguing stories of the two women, this book has a wonderful sense of time and history and, overwhelmingly, of the difficult choices women will always have to make.
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/trade_directory/