Books in the Virago Modern Classics series

Antonia White's autobiography of her early years

With uncompromising clarity, in her careful, delicate prose, antonia White looks at the pains and joys of growing up, of falling in and out of love, the borderlands between love and loneliness, sanity and madness, belief and the loss of faith. First published in 1954, STRANGERS is here extended to include her autobiographical story, 'Surprise Visit'; together they present some of Antonia White's finest writing.

* The Cinderella story of Thea Kronborg, rescued from obscurity in the American Midwest by her exquisite voice* Strongly autobiographical* 'The Song of the Lark illuminates all her work' A.S. BYATT

Celia works at the Ministry in the post-war England of 1949 and lives in a London suburb. Witty, fragile, quixotic, Celia is preoccupied with love - for her friends, her colleagues, her relations, and especially for her adored cousin Casmilus, with whom she goes on holiday to visit Uncle Heber, the vicar. Here they talk endlessly, argue, eat, tell stories, love and hate - moments of wild humour alternating with waves of melancholy as Celia ponders obsessively on the inevitable pain of love. In everything she wrote, Stevie Smith captured the paradox of pain in all human affections - nowhere more so than in this wry, strongly autobiographical tale.

The diary of a young Brazilian girl at the end of the nineteenth century. Introduced and translated by Elizabeth Bishop, one of the greatest American poets of the twentieth century.

Two classics of American literature from one of the twentieth century's most gifted writers

A deeply rewarding and beautiful novel' Hilary Mantel, GuardianLife in England seems transitory for Grace Cleave as the pull of her native New Zealand grows stronger. She begins to feel increasingly like a migratory bird. Grace longs to find her own place in the world, if only she can decide where that is. But first she must learn to feel comfortable in her own skin, feathers and all.Written in 1963, Janet Frame considered this novel too personal to be published in her lifetime.'In this deeply personal novel of exile and loneliness, Janet Frame proves the master of nostalgia, beauty and loss. Frame is, and will remain, divine' Alice Sebold'Exceptional . . . comic, melancholy and piercingly observant' Sunday Telegraph

In prison you see only the moves of the enemy. Prison is the hardest place to fight a battle.'117 Days is Ruth First's personal account of her detention under the iniquitous '90-day' law of 1963. There was no warrant, no charge and no trial - only suspicion.This sparsely written and unique record tells of her experiences of solitary confinement, constant interrogation and instantaneous re-arrest on release - lightened by humorous portraits of governors, matrons, wardresses and interrogators, seen as the tools of the police state.

With a new introduction by Victoria Glendinning, this is Rebecca West's most popular work of fiction