The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks

Plot Summary – The L-Shaped Room is a bildungsroman. Protagonist Jane Graham

unmarried and pregnant is thrown out of her father’s home. Jane finds herself in a bug-
infested flat in Fulham but soon makes friends with the black jazz player next door, Johnny,
and falls in love with the Jewish writer, Toby, in the room below. Jane got pregnant through
a bungled sexual encounter losing her virginity to her ex-boyfriend. Her decision to live by
herself and have the baby causes her to be seen as little better than the prostitutes who live in
the basement of the boarding house.