This short book traces Rose Tremain’s childhood and youth.

She was born in 1943 to a mother who seemed unable to love either of her daughters. The haven in Rosie’s life was her grandparents’ home, Linkenholt, where she enjoyed the freedom of the countryside until she was sent away to boarding school due to her parents’ divorce.

She is denied the chance to go to Oxford University and instead is packed off to a finishing school in Switzerland.

Her relationship with her mother is difficult and cold, but she has Nan, Vera Sturt, who teaches her about love and being loved.

This is not a sad book although there are heart wrenching moments, the scene of Rosie’s birthday on the beach in Cornwall being one.

The picnic and the cake never happen as Jane, Rosie’s mother, is more concerned about the broken zip on her lime green swimsuit and demands to be taken home. “All my life since then, I’ve never been able to surrender completely to the idea of enjoying a birthday.”

These are indeed ‘Scenes from a Vanished Life’ of the 50s and 60s, but there are fascinating insights into Rose Tremain’s writing life, her meeting with the Poet Laureate, John Masefield, and references to scenes in her novels taken from her early life.