Tender Shoots

Composed before and during the first months of the First World War, Paul Morand did not publish these stories until 1921. Clarissa, Delphine and Aurora - three alluring and independent young women - are stories set largely in London, a city he loved and which continued to fascinate him long after he worked there as an attaché at the French embassy. Stylish, poetic and highly original, Morand's urbane and witty stories came as a bracing and uplifting breath of fresh air on the French literary scene of the 1920s. They made an immediate impact on writers as diverse as Proust, Cocteau and Giraudoux, and paved the way for Morand's illustrious literary career that was to follow.