A Game of Hide and Seek

Blurb

A Game of Hide and Seek is a 1951 novel by Elizabeth Taylor.
It is a very human, ordinary and yet very extraordinary story, set in England between WWI and WWII and focused mainly upon Harriet Claridge and Vesey Macmillan. The relationship between these two and the effect it has upon those around them is the structure upon which the novel is built. Wistfully and uselessly in love, Harriet and Vesey play a sad game of hide and seek for more than 25 years.
When the story opens they are little more than children. Harriet is painfully inarticulate, Vesey defensive and irritating. Yet they are drawn to one another. They are separated when he goes off to Oxford. She cherishes his photograph and waits for a letter that never arrives. Harriet grows up to marry Charles, a rather dull country solicitor, and have a daughter, while Vesey leads a second-rate career as an actor.
The first half of the story leaves the reader at this point. Then there is a sharp chronological break and the characters are reassembled. Nothing has changed greatly–they are 15 years older and their lives have altered considerably, but Harriet is still inarticulate, Vesey still defensive and irritating.