Dusty Answer

Dusty Answer is English author Rosamond Lehmann's first novel, published in 1927. She sent it unsolicited to publishers Chatto & Windus who agreed to publish it, saying it showed 'decided quality'. It went unnoticed on initial publication but then received an effusive review by respected critic Alfred Noyes of The Sunday Times who called it 'the sort of novel Keats would have written', which brought it to public attention and it became a bestseller, and according to The Guardian a 'landmark book of the interwar period'. Its success allowed her to leave her then husband and run off with maverick artist Wogan Philipps whom she later married.

Plot introduction

The story contains many elements of the author's own childhood and upbringing, albeit idealised. Like the author, the protagonist, Judith Earle, grew up privately educated in a large riverbank house in Buckinghamshire, but unlike the author, Judith is an only child, with her only playmates being the five cousins next door: Julian, Charlie, Roddy, Martin and Mariella. Childhood friendships develop into romantic entanglements that continue as Judith leaves home for Girton College, Cambridge. Judith's brief romantic involvement with Jennifer, a fellow student, scandalized contemporary readers.