The Eights

âEntertaining and movingâ¦I came to love these four women as though they were my sistersâ TRACY CHEVALIER

âI ADORED it. What a fantastic read. My book of the yearâ JILL MANSELL

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They knew they were changing history.
They didnât know they would change each other.

Oxford, 1920. For the first time in its 1000-year history, the worldâs most famous university has admitted female students. Giddy with dreams of equality, education and emancipation, four young women move into neighbouring rooms on Corridor Eight. They have come here from all walks of life, and they are thrown into an unlikely, life-affirming friendship.

Dora was never meant to go to university, but, after losing both her brother and her fianc© on the battlefield, has arrived in their place. Beatrice, politically-minded daughter of a famous suffragette, sees Oxford as a chance to make her own way â" and her own friends â" for the first time. Socialite Otto fills her room with extravagant luxuries but fears they wonât be enough to distract her from her memories of the war years. And quiet, clever, Marianne, the daughter of a village vicar, arrives bearing a secret she must hide from everyone â" even The Eights â" if she is to succeed.

But Oxfordâs dreaming spires cast a dark shadow: in 1920, misogyny is still rife, influenza is still a threat, and the ghosts of the Great War are still very real indeed. And as the group navigate this tumultuous moment in time, their friendship will become more important than ever.

The Eights is a captivating debut novel about sisterhood, self-determination, courage, and what it means to come of age in a world that is forever changed.

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''Beautifully captures the power of friendship ... A pleasure to read'' PIP WILLIAMS, author of A Dictionary of Lost Words

''I so enjoyed The Eights'' CLARE CHAMBERS, author of Small Pleasures