Virginia Fly is Drowning by Angela Huth was first published in 1972 by William Collins and Sons but my copy is a 1992 reprint by Abacus.
Virginia Fly is a teacher, she’s an introvert and a virgin at the age of 31, but she has a very vivid imaginary sex life and erotic dreams, she’s obviously very frustrated. The longest relationship in her life (apart from her parents) has been with her male American penfriend, they’ve been writing to each other for twelve years.
For some bizarre reason Virginia agrees to go on a TV programme to be interviewed by a ‘celebrity’ TV presenter, this has all been orchestrated by Virginia’s mother, an overbearing woman who likes to be the centre of attention. Almost at the same time the penfriend arrives in England so he and Virginia will meet up at last. It seems that her virginity isn’t going to last much longer.
This is a well written book and at times quite funny, but I found it to be quite sad and all a bit unlikely. Also at a time when there were only three TV stations in the UK Virginia’s appearance on TV doesn’t seem to have been seen by anyone that knows her. Can you imagine what life woud have been like for any teacher of teenagers if she had announced on TV that she was still a virgin?!