Nya

"Nya", originally published in 1938 was the first novel of Stephen Haggard who worked in the Intelligence Service in the war. It tells the story of a love affair between a man in his twenties from an English middle class background and a thirteen-year old girl, brought back to England after a childhood in Nyasaland. The theme of the story is not the impossiblity of their love, nor the violation of the child but the chastity of the lovers. The book attempts to reconcile passion with respect for normal conduct. The cultural context of the events may have altered in the intervening years but the ancient argument between nature and custom, encountered by this novel, continues today.