Every emotional ripple is beautifully observed: the hideous anticipation, the agony of the empty dance card, the brief flutters of hope as various men take her for a turn around the dance floor, the many small disappointments that follow and the sudden vivid need to escape from the crowd, to flee, to breathe * Guardian * Lehmann legitimised a type of writing that took on deep personal themes -- English PEN A novelist in the grand tradition, and, more than this, an innovator, the first writer to filter her stories through a woman's feelings and perceptions -- Anita Brookner Lehmann has always written brilliantly of women in love, of mothers, of daughters, of suffering -- Margaret Drabble No English writer has told of the pains of women in love more truly or more movingly than Rosamond Lehmann -- Marghanita Laski A novelist in the grand tradition, and, more than this, an innovator, the first writer to filter her stories through a woman's feelings and perceptions * Anita Brookner * Lehmann has always written brilliantly of women in love, of mothers, of daughters, of suffering * Margaret Drabble * No English writer has told of the pains of women in love more truly or more movingly than Rosamond Lehmann * Marghanita Laski *