Dinah and her sister Lisa are growing up in 1950s South Africa, where racial laws are tightening. It's a time of dreadful change. They are two little girls from a dissenting liberal family. Big sister Lisa is strong and sensible, while Dinah is weedy and arty; a non-eating asthmatic who is pampered by her anxious mother. At school, the sadistic Mrs Vaughan-Jones is providing instruction in mental arithmetic and racial prejudice. As the apparatus of repression rolls on, Dinah escapes into rewarding friendships with wild-girl Maud and clued-up Jenny. Then there's the minefield of boys and university. Finally, there's marriage and voluntary exile in London
