The Friendly Young Ladies by Mary Renault

This is not a review so much as a collection of slightly-organised thoughts. Renault defeats my review-writing abilities.

The Friendly Young Ladies (1944) was written after Mary Renault read Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness, thought it was silly and decided to make the point this way. And, well, there are many things that could be said about this book, and 'it's not The Well of Loneliness' is certainly one of them. (It's been a few years since I read TWoL, so I can't do a detailed comparison—perhaps it would be an interesting thing to do?—anyway...).

( Well, it's fare thee well, my true love, a song is in the air; I hear the West calling, I'll see what's for me there... )

Poor Helen. I want to give her a hug. :(