Regiment of Women
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€18.50
Miss Clare Hartill, teacher at a girls’ boarding school, has a bewitching ability to get her own way, whether it is among the staff or the pupils who’ll do anything to please her. When nineteen-year-old Alwynne Durand is hired, Clare takes this innocent and enthusiastic but undisciplined young teacher under her wing.
Soon, the pair are spending every moment together, with Alwynne growing as dependent on Clare as she is drawn to her beguiling wit and charm.
But when tragedy touches the school, Alwynne begins to question Clare’s attentions. Sometimes, she thinks, her new friend can be cruel.
Torn between a Clare she loves and a Clare she fears, Alwynne must decide between loyalty and independence – before Clare chooses for her . . .
Born Winifred Ashton in 1888 in London, Clemence Dane (her pen name, taken from a church in The Strand) was an English actor, teacher, writer, playwright, screenwriter, journalist, sculptor, painter, broadcaster, lecturer and pioneering feminist. Regiment of Women, her first novel, was published in 1917. Subsequently she divided her time between writing plays, novels and screenplays. Her writing took her to Hollywood and films of her work featured some of the most famous stars of their day: Hitchcock, Hepburn, O’Hara, Garbo, Olivier, Kerr, Leigh. Two of her artworks are in the National Portrait Gallery and her great friend Noel Coward immortalised her as Madame Arcati in Blithe Spirit. She was the first British female screenwriter to win an Oscar and was famous for dropping entirely innocent double-entendres.