"I ought to tell you at the beginning that I am not quite normal having had a violent experience at the age of nine. Jessica Vye's violent experience colors her schooldays and her reaction to the world around her - a confining world of Order Marks, wartime restrictions, viyella dresses, nicely-restrained essays and dusty tea shops. For Jessica she has been told that she is beyond all possible doubt, a born writer"--Jacket.