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Goldsboro Books

978-1784082062

Before the War (Spoils of War)

Before the War (Spoils of War)

by Fay Weldon

Publisher Head of Zeus

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  • UK First Edition
  • First Printing
  • Hardcover

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About the book

Consider Vivien in November 1922. She is twenty four, and a spinster. She wears fashionably droopy clothes, but she is plain and - worse - intelligent. At nearly six foot tall, she is known unkindly by her family as 'the giantess'.

Fortunately, Vivien is rich, so she can travel to London and bribe a charismatic London publisher to marry her. What he does not know is that Vivien is pregnant with another's child, and will die in childbirth in just a few months.

Fay Weldon, with one eye on the present and one on the past, offers Vivien's fate to the reader, along with that of London between the wars: a city soaked in drizzle, peopled with flat-chested flappers, shell-shocked servicemen and aristocrats desperately clinging onto the past.

Inventive, witty and empathetic, this is a spellbinding historical novel from one of the foremost novelists of our time.

About the Author

Fay Weldon

Fay Weldon is an English author, essayist and playwright.


In 1963 Weldon began writing for radio and television. In 1967, her first novel, The Fat Woman's Joke was published.


In 1971 Weldon wrote the first episode of the landmark television series Upstairs, Downstairs for which she won a Writers' Guild award for Best British TV Series Script. In 1980 Weldon wrote the screenplay for director/producer John Goldschmidt's television movie Life for Christine, which told the true story of a 15-year-old girl's life imprisonment.


Weldon's most celebrated work is her 1983 novel, The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, which she wrote at the age of 52.


Weldon was appointed Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University, in West London in 2006, and Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, in 2012.

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  • Book Condition & Notes

    All of our books that a have dust wrapper are covered in clear protective, removable film and are packed professionally in bubble wrap and a box for shipping so that they reach you in perfect condition.

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