Breakfast At Libraries

It's 1938 and Phyllis Forrester has just returned from the continent with her husband and children. She's looking forward to seeing more of her sisters, Patricia and Nina, and being back in England while her husband designs their new home. Finding herself rather at a loose end and looking for a way to occupy her children before they're sent away to boarding schools - the Forresters are wealthy and Phyllis doesn't, of course, have to work or keep house herself - Phyllis throws herself into helping her sister Nina with the summer camps she runs on the Sussex coast for what initially appears to be a sort of scouting movement. It all seems very jolly - the upper classes recruiting people of all backgrounds to go camping, join in with healthy outdoor activities, get to know new people and listen to inspiring lectures. But the organisation's emblem is a lightning bolt in a circle, and the shirts of their uniforms are black...

Cressida Connolly's After The Partyis a f…