'Now she had taken off her goodness and left it behind her like a heap of rain-sodden clothes, and she only felt joy'

Mrs Wilkins and Mrs Arbuthnot, cowed and neglected by their husbands, make a daring plan: they will have a holiday. Leaving a drab and rainy London one April and arriving on the shores of the Mediterranean, they discover a flower-filled paradise of beauty, warmth and leisure. Joined by the beautiful Lady Caroline and domineering Mrs Fisher, also in flight from the burdens of their daily lives, the four women proceed to transform themselves and their prospects.

VINTAGE DECO: Nine blazing, daring novels to celebrate the 1920s - 100 years on.

Elizabeth Von Arnim