ONE OF THE MOST REMARKABLE BRITISH WRITERS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

'Lehmann legitimised a type of writing that took on deep personal themes' ENGLISH PEN

'Full of her sensibility, her funniness, her own particular acumen' ELIZABETH JANE HOWARD

In 1933 we meet Rebecca, heroine of The Ballad and the Source - but in a different world, on many levels. Betrayed by her married lover, Rebecca arrives alone at a small Caribbean island. Here, along with the splendidly eccentric members of the British expatriate colony, she meets the former ace pilot Johnny, crippled now, a misanthropic recluse: for both of them their passionate affair the powerful life force love can be. Here too she encounters voices from the past and the vibrant spirit of Mrs. Jardine - voices which remind Rebecca of the girl she was and the woman she could become.

This is a poignant, uplifting novel about the lives we leave behind, our eternal quest for love, and the answers we seek when our faith is shaken.

Lehmann legitimised a type of writing that took on deep personal themes -- English PEN
Full of her sensibility, her funniness, her own particular acumen. It is also beautifully written and devised -- Elizabeth Jane Howard
Full of her sensibility, her funniness, her own particular acumen. It is also beautifully written and devised * ELIZABETH JANE HOWARD *

Rosamond Lehmann (1901-1990) was born on the day of Queen Victoria's funeral, in Buckinghamshire, England, the second of four children. In 1927, a few years after graduating from the University of Cambridge, she published her first novel, Dusty Answer, to critical acclaim and instantaneous celebrity. Lehmann continued to write and publish between 1930 and 1976, penning works including The Weather in the Streets, The Ballad and the Source, and the short memoir The Swan in the Evening. Lehmann was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1982 and remains one of the most distinguished novelists of the twentieth century.