The radiant way

Liz, Alix and Esther were among the most brilliant of their generation. To these three gifted and ambitious young women, fresh from Cambridge in the 1950s, the world offered its riches ...On New Year's Eve 1979 they reunite. What does the future now hold for Liz, assured Harley Street psychotherapist, wife, mother and stepmother; for relentlessly well-intentioned Alix, teaching English literature to young girl offenders; and for Esther, eccentric connoisseur of art and resolutely single. Margaret Drabble's magnificent novel explores the lives of these three women, and in telling of their loves and losses, their hopes and fears, she creates an unforgettable panorama of our changing times. 'A sublime example of Miss Drabble's mastery in unravelling the intricacies of intimate relationships' - The Times'The Radiant Way shows a Dickensian desire to encompass the whole of contemporary British life, with its widening social and regional gulfs ... Humane, intelligent