Privileged Children, first published in 1982, was the brilliant debut fiction by the prodigiously gifted Frances Vernon (1963-1991), which earned her the Author's Club Award for Best First Novel.

When Diana Molloy dies in 1912 she leaves a curious inheritance to her 14-year-old daughter Alice - her collection of books, and a lasting attachment to her mother's bohemian friends. The self-possessed young Alice is dismayed, therefore, to be packed off to live with a rural clergyman uncle. But it's not long before she contrives an escape back to her beloved Bloomsbury, and the opportunity to forge her own way in the world.

'Saucy and daring... here is genuine sparkle and invention.' Daily Express

'Highly enjoyable' Jenny Uglow, TLS