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Summary
Summary
December 1901: With London Society in a frenzy of anticipation for the coronation of the new king, Edward VII, the Earl and Countess of Dilberne are caught up in lavish preparations. Yet Lady Isobel still has ample time to fret, and no wonder with a new heir on the way, an elopement, family tragedy, a runaway niece, and a gaggle of fraudulent spiritualists to contend with...
With her trademark joie de vivre, Fay Weldon once again draws her readers into the lives and loves of the aristocratic Dilberne family, as they embrace not only a new century, but a new generation - a generation with somewhat radical views...
Author Notes
Fay Weldon was born in Worcester, England on September 22, 1931. She read economics and psychology at the University of St. Andrews. She worked as a propaganda writer for the British Foreign Office and then as an advertising copywriter for various firms in London before making writing a full-time career.
Her work includes over twenty novels, five collections of short stories, several children's books, non-fiction books, and a number of plays written for television, radio and the stage. Her collections of short stories include Mischief and Nothing to Wear and Nowhere to Hide. She wrote a memoir entitled Auto Da Fay and non-fiction book entitled What Makes Women Happy. She wrote the pilot episode for the television series Upstairs Downstairs.
Her first novel, The Fat Woman's Joke, was published in 1967. Her other novels include Praxis, The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, Puffball, Rhode Island Blues, Mantrapped, She May Not Leave, The Spa Decameron, Habits of the House, Long Live the King, and The New Countess. Wicked Women won the PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award. She was awarded a CBE in 2001.
Fay Weldon died on January 4, 2023, in a nursing home in Northampton, England, at the age of 91.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Weldon's second installment of the Love and Inheritance Trilogy is a capable, but lackluster, return to romance, intrigue, and beautiful homes. In this starchy rendering of King Edward VII's all-consuming 1902 coronation, England is still mourning Queen Victoria. Tension between Lord Robert (Earl of Dilberne) and his wife, Isobel, over extra coronation tickets results in Isobel secretly posting them to Robert's estranged brother, Edwin, along with a gift for their 16-year-old niece, Adela. Edwin is a repressed, abusive man who calls Adela stupid and plain, and deprives her of food. When tragedy strikes Adela's family, the suddenly-orphaned, lovely, blue-eyed girl with the "blonde-red Botticelli waves" is seduced into the world of trances, seances, and fake spiritualism, becoming Princess Ida. Meanwhile, Isobel is consumed with Robert's interest in the beautiful, bejeweled, and unhappily married Duchess Consuelo, a Vanderbilt. Robert and Isobel's outspoken daughter, Rosina, stung by her family's rejection, marries spontaneously and unsuitably, running off with her mate and chatty parrot to Australia. Weldon ends on a happy note: the king survives appendicitis, Robert and Isobel become grandparents, and Adela unites with family. Fans of the Victorian and Edwardian periods will appreciate the characters' noble mien and place in history. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
His balance sheet firmly back in the black thanks to the machinations of his solicitor, Eric Baum, Lord Dilberne, can now turn his attentions to more pressing affairs of state, especially the upcoming coronation of King Edward VII. There are grouse to be shot and golf to be played, and his wife, Isobel, must advise both family and the court on the proper amount of ermine to trim the royal robes. And then there's the matter of the coveted extra tickets to the event itself: Should they go to the socially unacceptable Baums or to Lord Dilberne's estranged brother Edwin and his family? Isobel makes a potentially awkward decision, unaware that Edwin has died. His now-orphaned teenage daughter, Adela, then falls prey to a pair of con artists out to capitalize on the gentry's fascination with spiritualism. Teeming with tasty tidbits about royals great and small, Weldon's second installment in her Dilberne Court trilogy, following Habits of the House (2013), gives devoted Anglophiles a whirlwind tour upstairs, downstairs, and all around the castle. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Promotional efforts will be redoubled as acclaimed author Weldon's delicious series continues.--Haggas, Carol Copyright 2010 Booklist