I Leap Over the Wall

On her twenty-first birthday Monica Baldwin – daughter of Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin – entered one of the oldest and most strictly enclosed contemplative orders of the Roman Catholic Church. Twenty-eight years later, having realized she did not have a true vocation for the life of a nun, she obtained a special rescript from Rome and left the convent. But the world Monica had known and forsaken in 1914 was very different to the world she found when she emerged into it at the height of the Second World War – This book is the fascinating story of one woman’s two very different lives, with lucid descriptions of the world of a novice, the duties of a nun’s day, and the spiritual aspects of convent life. These are interwoven with the trials and tribulations of life in a new and alien world, as the author is confronted by fashions, interventions, politics and art that are totally unfamiliar to her. Humour, intelligence, an endearing humility and an exciting honesty characterize this remarkable book that gives readers both a glimpse into a hidden world and a uniquely fresh take on a familiar one.