Book description
The motto was
Pax
but the word was set in a circle of thorns. Peace, but what a strange
peace, made of unremitting toil and effort.'
Bruised by tragedy, Philippa Talbot leaves a successful career in the
civil service for a new calling. She joins an enclosed order of
Benedictine nuns. In this small community of fewer than one hundred
women, she soon discovers all the human frailties: jealousy, love,
despair. But each crisis of heart and conscience is guided by the
compassion and intelligence of the Abbess and by the Sisters' shared
bond of faith and ritual. Away from the world, and yet at one with it,
Philippa must learn to forgive and forget her past . . . Rumer Godden
(1907-98) was the acclaimed author of over sixty works of fiction and
non-fiction for adults and children. Born in England, she and her
siblings grew up in Narayanganj, India, and she later spent many years
living in Calcutta and Kashmir. Several of her novels were made into
films, including Black Narcissus, The Greengage Summer
and The River
, which was filmed by Jean Renoir. She was appointed OBE in 1993.
