On a train from Paris to Geneva, Edith Campbell Berry meets Major Ambrose Westwood in the dining car, makes his acquaintance over a lunch of six courses, and allows him to kiss her passionately. Their early intimacy binds them together once they reach Geneva and their posts at the newly created League of Nations. There, a heady idealism prevails over Edith and her young colleagues, and nothing seems beyond their grasp, certainly not world peace. The exuberance of the times carries over into Geneva nights: Edith is drawn into a dark and glamorous underworld where, coaxed by Ambrose, she becomes more and more sexually adventurous. Grand Days is vivid and wise, full of shocks of recognition and revelation.

Frank Moorhouse has written fiction, non-fiction, screenplays and essays and edited many collections of writing. He is the author of Forty-Seventeen, Grand Days, Cold Light and Dark Palace.