Bilgewater - by Jane Gardam (Paperback)

About the Book

"Motherless and 16, Marigold is the headmaster's daughter at a private backwater all-boys school. To make matters worse, Marigold pines for head boy Jack Rose, reckons with the beautiful and domineering Grace, and yanks herself headlong out of her interior world and into the seething cauldron of adolescence. With everything happening all at once, Marigold faces the greatest of teenage crucibles"--Amazon.com

Book Synopsis

"A quirky coming-of-age story . . . Female adolescence as imagined by one of the 20th century's best--and most peculiar--writers" (Kirkus Reviews).

Originally published in 1977, Jane Gardams Bilgewater is an affectionate and complex rendering-in-miniature of the discomforts of growing up and first love seen through the eyes of inimitable Marigold Green, an awkward, eccentric, highly intelligent girl. The Evening Standard described Bilgewater as "one of the funniest, most entertaining, most unusual stories about young love."
Motherless and sixteen, Marigold is the headmaster's daughter at a private backwater all-boys school. To make matters worse, Marigold pines for head boy Jack Rose, reckons with the beautiful and domineering Grace, and yanks herself headlong out of her interior world and into the seething cauldron of adolescence. With everything happening all at once, Marigold faces the greatest of teenage crucibles.

A smart and painterly romp in the rich tradition of The Hollow Land and A Long Way from Verona, Gardam's elegant, evocative prose, possessed of sharp irony and easy surrealism makes Bilgewater a book for readers of all ages.

"This is no ordinary bildungsroman." --New Pages

"A striking story."--Times Literary Supplement

Review Quotes

Praise for Bilgewater

"Female adolescence as imagined by one of the 20th century's best--and most peculiar--writers."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Lively...excellent."
--The Times

"A striking story."
--TLS

Praise for Jane Gardam

"[Gardam] is a brilliant writer. Her prose sparkles with wit, compassion and humor."
--The Washington Post

"[Gardam] is the best kind of literary escape: serious, mesmerizing, and deeply satisfying."
--Los Angeles Review of Books

"It's hard...not to be charmed by a writer with Gardam's substantial gifts."
--The New York Times Book Review

"Gardam's prose is so economical that no moment she describes is either gratuitous or wasted."
--The New Yorker

"Gardam is a unique and wonderful writer."
--The Huffington Post

Praise for "Bilgewater"
"Female adolescence as imagined by one of the 20th century's best and most peculiar writers."
"Kirkus Reviews"
"Lively...excellent."
"The Times"
"A striking story."
"TLS
"
Praise for Jane Gardam
"[Gardam] is a brilliant writer. Her prose sparkles with wit, compassion and humor."
"The Washington Post"
"[Gardam] is the best kind of literary escape: serious, mesmerizing, and deeply satisfying."
"Los Angeles Review of Books"
"It's hard...not to be charmed by a writer with Gardam's substantial gifts."
"The New York Times Book Review"
"Gardam's prose is so economical that no moment she describes is either gratuitous or wasted."
"The New Yorker"
"Gardam is a unique and wonderful writer."
"The Huffington Post""

Praise for "Bilgewater"
"Lively...excellent." The Times
"A striking story." TLS

Praise for Jane Gardam
"[Gardam] is a brilliant writer. Her prose sparkles with wit, compassion and humor."
"The Washington Post"
"[Gardam] is the best kind of literary escape: serious, mesmerizing, and deeply satisfying."
"Los Angeles Review of Books"
"It's hard...not to be charmed by a writer with Gardam's substantial gifts."
"The New York Times Book Review"
"Gardam's prose is so economical that no moment she describes is either gratuitous or wasted."
"The New Yorker"
"Gardam is a unique and wonderful writer." "The Huffington Post""

About the Author

Jane Gardam is the only writer to have been twice awarded the Whitbread Prize for Best Novel of the Year. She is winner of the David Higham Prize and the Royal Society for Literature's Winifred Holtby Prize, the Katherine Mansfield Prize, and the Silver Pen Award from PEN. Her novels include Old Filth (Europa, 2006), The Queen of the Tambourine, (Europa, 2007), and A Long Way from Verona (Europa, 2013). A volume of her selected short stories, The Stories of Jane Gardam, was published in 2014 by Europa Editions. She lives in the south of England near the sea.