A Woman's Life

Three women, born at the outbreak of World War II, who've grown up in widely differing circumstances, form an improbable friendship that sustains them through forty years. Connie is the youngest member of a large Irish family and Ireland's too small to contain her. She is beautiful and impulsive. Men love her, while she roars through life, never looking before she leaps - sometimes onto rocks. Nina is English and middleclass, the shy, thoughtful, daughter of an army officer. She marries her boyhood love and has two children before realising how unfulfilled she is, and that painting is her true passion. Fay is American and Jewish, the granddaughter of a holocaust survivor. She's the ambitious one, who fulfils her dream of becoming a doctor before admitting a darker, more complex side to her nature. Through love, marriage, children, work, divorce and tragedy, this is a beautifully written and compelling novel of friendship.

“Played out against a backdrop of world events, including the Feminist movement and the Troubles in Northern Ireland, this is an entertaining study of the dynamics of friendship-- Good Housekeeping”

The novel is a reflection of the characters' lives - vivid, dramatic and sometimes chaotic, with emotional volume turned up to full blast . . . a narrative of striking exuberance and generosity THE TIMES
Played out against a backdrop of world events, including the Feminist movement and the Troubles in Northern Ireland, this is an entertaining study of the dynamics of friendship GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
The female characters are so superbly drawn, so real, that you are reminded of the skill of the female novelists of the 19th century ... [the novel's] brilliance lies in a combination of the author's subtle observations - how jealous men can be of their wives' friends, for example - and the absence of sentimentality DAILY TELEGRAPH
Ranks with the best achievements of fine authors such as Joanna Trollope, who have staked claims in similar territory ...The novel, which is a pleasure to read from start to finish, has a breadth of vision that left me full of admiration THE TABLET

Rachel Billington has published twenty novels and nine books for children, as well as several non-fiction works. She is also a regular journalist, feature writer and reviewer. She is co-editor of Inside Time, the national newspaper for prisoners and a Vice-President of English PEN. She has four children and five grandchildren and lives in London and Dorset.

Three women, born at the outbreak of World War II, who've grown up in widely differing circumstances, form an improbable friendship that sustains them through forty years. Connie is the youngest member of a large Irish family and Ireland's too small to contain her. She is beautiful and impulsive. Men love her, while she roars through life, never looking before she leaps - sometimes onto rocks. Nina is English and middleclass, the shy, thoughtful, daughter of an army officer. She marries her boyhood love and has two children before realising how unfulfilled she is, and that painting is her true passion. Fay is American and Jewish, the granddaughter of a holocaust survivor. She's the ambitious one, who fulfils her dream of becoming a doctor before admitting a darker, more complex side to her nature. Through love, marriage, children, work, divorce and tragedy, this is a beautifully written and compelling novel of friendship.

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