I saw this book on my granny's shelf many years ago and assumed to be like a Mills and Boon, but then a friend recommended it so I bought it from amazon.
It's wonderful, a true family saga that wafts and weaves back and forth in time and between places. A true comfort book packed with lush British scenery, cultured characters and social history.
But christ it's long. There's a full page description of a man changing a lightbulb and two pages given to a toddlers birthday party.
I admit I started scanning over some pages. Her biggest crime though is the character of Danus Muirfield.
Muirfield is a golf course, not a surname, and according to the voters roll Danus isn't a name at all. I could forgive that if he didn't live in Heriot Row and keep an 18 year old model at arms length because he has 'nothing to give her yet'. Lol for days at that one.
I suppose it's weird that to us, it's a double period piece. It features the war, and the eighties. When it was written, it was contemporary with a forty year throwback.
I couldn't work out how Penelope's children grew up to be so different, or how she managed to produce such a repellent son. I thought this would be answered but it wasn't. Names matter a lot to me in books, and he wasn't a Noel in my judgement. Olivia was the only one who truly inhabited her name.
Anyway I'll keep my eyes peeled in charity shops for her other stuff, it's a perfect autumn treat.