Bearing the weight of devastating loss, a woman has fled post-war London for the sanctuary of her Swiss chalet. As she lies in the sun and lets her gaze linger on her thin sliver of garden, nature and solitude begin to do their work. Recording her thoughts in a journal, she eventually finds herself well enough to feel lonely and irritable – and then two English sisters arrive at her door...

The clear Alpine air has done its work and the narrator is much restored. Contemplating a return to England, she worries about the fate of her companions.

This delightful short novel of 1920, from the author of ‘The Enchanted April’, is a hymn to the restorative powers of nature, landscape and companionship.

Read by Ruth Gemmell
Written by Elizabeth von Arnim
Abridged by Clara Glynn
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie Show less