Cold Light

Edith Campbell Berry joined the League of Nations in Geneva before the war; in 1950 the League has collapsed, the new United Nations wants none of its old staff, and her vision lies in ruins. She returns to Australia with her husband, Ambrose, whose sex life follows no conventions, and settles in Canberra. Hoping to be named the country's first female ambassador, she becomes caught up in planning the national capital as a city unlike any other. Then her communist brother, Frederick, reappears after years away, at a time when anti-communist feeling runs high and having such a relative could cost her a diplomatic career; being a wife with a 'lavender husband' carries its own danger. In middle age Edith also finds that she longs for children, and a man offering security and a ready-made family forces a choice.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Genres

Historical, Politics (assigned by AI)

Set in

Australia, 1950s

Series

Edith Trilogy, book 3 · book 2: Dark Palace

First published

2011

Author's age

73 when first published

ISBN

9781741661262 (Random House Australia, Australia)

9781742759111 (Vintage Australia, Australia)

More

Wikidata