1. A Cuckoo in the Nest
In the first Hollis Family novel, Ralph Hollis returns from wartime evacuation with an education and ambitions that no longer fit the life expected of him. His father wants him to accept secure work at the paper mill, but Ralph is drawn to acting and to…
2. A Spoonful of Jam
In the summer of 1947, Elsie Hollis is a scholarship pupil at a girls’ grammar school and an outsider in almost every part of her life. Bullied by other pupils and neglected by a father absorbed in his own disappointments, she finds refuge when a local…
3. Just Henry
Five years after the war, Henry Dodge lives beneath the memory of a father celebrated as a hero. He escapes into the cinema and keeps apart from classmates whom his grandmother considers disreputable, until a school project and an undeveloped roll of film draw him into…
4. Impossible!
Josie Hollis enters a London stage school determined to become an actress, but the institution is more concerned with manners, appearance and commercial acceptability than with her talent. Moving between classes, auditions and the professional theatre, she encounters adults who try to narrow her ambitions and…