... this fun book :)
The fact the author covers seven marriages in barely 300 pages means, by definition, this is simply an introduction to these famous couples. But she does include a decent bibliography, so I can follow up any that interest me.
However, the questions she asks about the nature of love and romance and marriage in the introduction are largely unanswered... I think she would have done better to look at only two or three couples indepth to really get to the bottom of her rather insightful questions.
But it is a good read - quasi-scholarly gossip is such fun!! - so I'd certainly recommend it!!
It's one of those books where the front-page blurb is actually true - 'Positively fizzes with scandal and emotion... Deliciously addictive reading' - so it is worth packing in your suitcase as holiday fare...
Then when you return home, you can go to the library to read more meaty biographies of those characters who have piqued your interest :)
Plus I learnt a very interesting fact that simply passed me by when I was a 'sort-of-political' student in the 1980s (I did go on anti-Thatcher street marches and join those protesting Somerville College not give her an honorary doctorate) - Shirley Williams (one of the 'gang of four' who broke away from the Labour Party to form the SDP - Social Democrat Party) was Vera (Testament of Youth) Brittain's daughter...
I simply never knew that!! And now I want to read William's autobiography about her childhood - she was actually raised more by Winifred Holtby (Vera's faithful friend) while Brittain was being feted on both sides of the Atlantic...
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