Jem McCrail is a fantastical godsend to the timid young Alice Pilling. Like adropped acorn she appears halfway through the week halfway through the termand half... » 

Jem McCrail is a fantastical godsend to the timid young Alice Pilling. Like adropped acorn she appears halfway through the week halfway through the termand halfway through Miss Aldridges Silent Reading Hour. Through the doorwayshe barely clears wearing clothes like the cowshedcrouching urchin sheencountered in her favorite P. G. Wodehouse story Jem leads the stammeringAlice into a world of culture truancy and bizarreriea world far beyond thedesiccated lessons of school. The girls cultivate a steadfast bond based on awicked and encircling sense of humor an impish joy in indelicate literatureand Mozarts The Magic Flute. «