By the early evening, even a stranger to the city could sense that something extraordinary was about to occur. There was a low sun glazing the spires of King's College Chapel, and a pulse of excitement in the air. Katie Arkwright, robed in white satin, arrives at the ball. She is beautiful. She is also unsure of herself.
Nervousness gives way to exhilaration as the all-night party gets underway.
Then, suddenly, she disappears Cambridge is presented here at its most engaging, its most glamorous, reflecting the way university and college life has changed since Daisy's era. Cambridge University is a less raucous institution now than it was in the Nineteenth Century, more serious of purpose, more dignified, more single-minded in its scholarly pursuits, more measured in its tone, more in keeping with our democratic age. But this is only one dimension of a complex reality. As I pressed further in my research, I found some surprising parallels with the Spinning House era lurking beneath the surface. Prostitution continues in Cambridge though not on the scale of Daisy's day.