One ordinary school. Three extraordinary women …

In the 1920s, three young girls enter a strict, cheerless convent school in a quiet London suburb.

Six years later they leave, to change the world …

Maureen was the movie star, whose role as Tarzan’s Jane helped rewrite the rules of cinema censorship.

Sonia was the aspiring writer who became George Orwell’s wife and the guardian of his literary legacy.

And Vivian was the actress as iconic as the roles she played, from Cleopatra to Scarlett O’Hara.

Together their careers encompassed glamour and tragedy, triumph and scandal. From Bloomsbury to Hollywood, and from the cafés of Paris to the theatres of New York, this novel is a breath-taking epic spanning four decades in three unforgettable lives.