George

In the London of suffragism and the Bloomsbury Group, two young women are driven by idealism to found a nursery school for poor children from the slums of Somers Town; children like George, a toddler from a large family who struggle to live decently amidst squalor, ill health, drunkenness and violence. Drawing on their ingenuity and perseverance, Phyllis and Leila develop the Caldecott Nursery into a community that experiments with new ideas in education. But their success is threatened by the Great War, and they are forced to uproot the community and take the children to a new life in the Kent countryside. Based on detailed research into the real people of the story, this novel imagines the experience of Phyllis as she sacrifices her personal aspirations in the face of the all-consuming demands of building the community. Above all it explores George’s dilemma as he is nurtured in a culture in which he finds himself dislocated from his own origins and identity.