All Passion Spent (VMC)

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In 1913 she married diplomat and politician Harold Nicholson, though both continued to take (same-sex) lovers. It is telling that it is only in these last days that Lady Slane learns that Genoux was a farm girl with seven siblings, who had been sent from Paris by an agent, to never seen them again. Lovely review of a great novel – I agree, a few bits stuck in the throat, but mostly a really brilliantly written, unusual book. Lady Slane sells her large house in central London; she and her loyal housekeeper (also elderly) move to a small house in Hampstead that Lady Slane had seen years ago and is now available to let.

I enjoyed this one very much, and as I said above, I like to put a novel in the context of it’s time. Highly recommended for its graceful beauty, insights into love and personal independence, and its forward-looking viewpoint. The understanding and sympathy Lady Slane is suddenly about to show her great-granddaughter Deborah, who is confronted with the same problem she faced in her own girlhood.When the great statesman Lord Slane dies, everyone assumes his dutiful wife will slowly fade away, the paying guest of each of her six children. Much of the story concerns itself in establishing Lady Slane in her home, peculiarly fitted for the retirement she so desired.

Some of her musings made me a bit sad, such as thinking back on her husband and children as 'obstacles' that kept her from her true self. I loved the scenes where Lady Slane and her young (er) friend Mr Fitz-George stroll slowly on Hampstead Heath, stopping frequently because they’re tired (though they pretend they want to admire the view). Above all I adored the refreshing depiction of an elderly lady who delights in her new found independence. How these three, all old, eccentric, and unworldly had populated her remote life now at its close, was a bit fantastic to Lady Slane, and in spite of her years, she thoroughly enjoyed the intrusion. She however surprises them all by deciding to live on her own in a house she'd spotted years earlier, and settling in a quiet life surrounded by a few confidants, avoiding the limelight and the attentions of her greedy and mean-spirited children unable to see their mother's true needs.And I am a bit conflicted about the death of the author thing – I love Knole and Sissinghurst and her writing tower etc but I like to read books as I read them rather than as reflecting on the author, and love the idea that the reader co-creates the book, if you see what I mean.