Jerusalem the Golden Author:Margaret Drabble From a tender age, Clara Maughan had loved the old hymn which began: — Jerusalem the Golden — With milk and honey blest... — although what she pictured was not the pearly gates of som heavenly city, but a terrestrial paradise where beutiful people lived in beautiful houses and spoke of beautiful things. — It was the winning of a state scholarship th... more »at transported her, incredibly, mercifully, from a drab, restrictive life in the north of England and a mother who seemed to the epitome of crushed hopes and limited horizens., to London - Clara's golden Jerusalem.
From her vantage pointof age 22, it seemed fortunate to Clara that she did not meet the Denhams until her 3rd year at the university. At first, all people not from home seemed equally brilliant and charming, althought the Denhams had more than their share of both brilliance and charm , they also had a very special facultyfor enjoying life.
Under their auspices, Clara discovers that there is is indeed a colorful adn heterogeneous world available for the asking and she enters it with single minded purpose, heedless of the chaos she creates around her...« less