Promotional Information

A stylish, warm, sometimes comical, sometimes loving story of a marriage, a family, and a village affair.

About the Author

Joanna Trollope is the author of eagerly awaited and sparklingly readable novels often centred around the domestic nuaunces and dilemmas of life in present-day England. She has also written a number of historical novels and Britannia's Daughters, a study of women in the British Empire.
Joanna Trollope was born in Gloucestershire and now lives in London. She was appointed OBE in the 1996 Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to literature.

Reviews

An elegantly crafted dissection of English rural life among the well-heeled and privileged...A considerable achievement
*Woman's Journal*

A story of seduction - not only sexual seduction but the irresistible appeal of money, beautiful objects, charming manners...excellent
*The Sunday Times*

A richly textured and immensely readable novel
*The Sunday Times*

An elegantly crafted dissection of English rural life among the well-heeled and privileged...A considerable achievement * Woman's Journal *
A story of seduction - not only sexual seduction but the irresistible appeal of money, beautiful objects, charming manners...excellent * The Sunday Times *
A richly textured and immensely readable novel * The Sunday Times *

In 1977 Alice Meadows marries Martin Jordan to escape her parents' seedy house and join his glamorous and prosperous family. Her painting flourishes. By the mid-1980s, Alice finds herself with three children, a plodding husband, and a picturesque house in a ``much sought-after village'' near Salisbury. However, she exists in an emotional vacuum and can no longer paint. Then the local squire's daughter, Clodagh, arrives to awaken Alice to passion and artistic rebirth. The women's affair shatters Martin and scandalizes the village. Eventually Alice rejects eveyone, including Clodagh, and decides to support her children through her art. Because Alice is so tiresome and self-absorbed, most readers probably won't care whether she succeeds or not. The strenght of several minor characters cannot compensate for the tedium of considering Alice's woes.-- Kathy Piehl, Mankato State Univ., Minn.