Grace Fairfax lives with her dull, conventional husband Tom in a grey manufacturing town in the north of England. At thirty-four she finds that her external life of dreary routine fails to match up to her lush, wistful and dreamy internal life. Norah, her energetic and chaotic friend, is equally settled in her own marriage to an irritable university professor. Then Hugh Miller and his sister Claire descend upon the quiet town. On all four, the hypnotic charm of these two visitors exerts an enchanting spell. And after their departure, life - having been violently disrupted - will never be quite the same again . . .
I am currently discovering a group of female British novelists whose works have been incredibly underrated - namely, Elizabeth Taylor and Rosamond Lehmann. Had Lehmann been a man, no doubt she would have been hailed as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century; she is every bit as good as E.M. Forrster, D.H. Lawrence, or Somerset Maugham - all of whom I consider among my favourite authors. And yet, even my librarian had never heard of Rosamund Lehmann and had to pull her books out of storage. It is absolutely appalling that the literary world has consistently overlooked brilliant female writers. Anyway, this book is a story about a depressed, unhappily married woman who becomes enchanted by a young man who is hired to work with her husband. It is incredibly well-written, at times very funny, always intelligent, and left me so very grateful to have discovered my now favourite writer. Excellent read, highly recommended.
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