Rosamond Lehmann (1901-1990) was born on the day of Queen Victoria's funeral, in Buckinghamshire, England, the second of four children. In 1927, a few years after graduating from the University of Cambridge, she published her first novel, Dusty Answer, to critical acclaim and instantaneous celebrity. Lehmann continued to write and publish between 1930 and 1976, penning works including The Weather in the Streets, The Ballad and the Source, and the short memoir The Swan in the Evening. Lehmann was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1982 and remains one of the most distinguished novelists of the twentieth century.

Every emotional ripple is beautifully observed: the hideous anticipation, the agony of the empty dance card, the brief flutters of hope as various men take her for a turn around the dance floor, the many small disappointments that follow and the sudden vivid need to escape from the crowd, to flee, to breathe