February 1947, and post-war England is in the grip of bitter winter. At a prestigious girls' boarding school in the north of England a deeply unhappy ten-year-old tries to drown herself in a freezing pond and is rescued by two classmates. This is the shocking start to both 'In the Beginning ...', the first novel of The Coming of Age trilogy, and to a lifelong supportive friendship between the three girls, all of whom have found themselves, for very...