Description
In the early 1900s Easter lives with her Aunt Brenda, her cousins Evelyn and Basil, and their Great-Aunt Dicksie in an imposing country house, Puppetstown, which casts a spell over their childhood. Here they spend carefree days taunting the peacocks in Aunt Dicksie's garden, shooting snipe and woodcock, hunting, and playing with Patsy, the boot boy. But the house and its inhabitants are not immune to the 'little, bitter, forgotten war in Ireland' and when it finally touches their lives all flee to England. All except Aunt Dicksie who refuses to surrender Puppetstown's magic. She stays on with Patsy, living in a corner of the deserted house while in England the cousins are groomed for Society. But for two of them those wild, lost Puppetstown years cannot be forgotten.
A rich an evocative novel which combines the intricacies of family feeling and a powerful sense of place with a pervasive awareness of 'those strange, silent, dangerous days' in Ireland.
About the Author
Molly Keane (1904-1996) was an Irish novelist and playwright. She grew up at Ballyrankin in County Wexford and was educated at a boarding school in Bray, County Wicklow. She married Bobby Keane, one of a Waterford squirearchical family in 1938 and had two daughters. She used her married name for her later novels, several of which (Good Behaviour, Time After Time) have been adapted for television. Between 1928 and 1956, she wrote eleven novels, and some of her earlier plays, under the pseudonym M. J. Farrell. Her husband died suddenly in 1946, and following the failure of a play she published nothing for twenty years. In 1981, Good Behaviour came out under her own name. The novel was warmly received and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.
Reviews
She was . . . marvellous * Guardian *
I admired many authors. But Molly, I loved -- Diana Athill
Keane's distinctive blend of elegant savagery and deep affection . . . its human relationships tortured like bonsai by good form, its open-hearted, sensual passion for horses, dogs and landscape * Evening Standard *
A writer of genius * Wall Street Journal *
Book Information
ISBN 9781844083992
Author Molly Keane
Format Paperback
Page Count 304
Imprint Virago Press Ltd
Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
Weight(grams) 230g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 21mm
A rich an evocative novel which combines the intricacies of family feeling and a powerful sense of place with a pervasive awareness of 'those strange, silent, dangerous days' in Ireland.
About the Author
Molly Keane (1904-1996) was an Irish novelist and playwright. She grew up at Ballyrankin in County Wexford and was educated at a boarding school in Bray, County Wicklow. She married Bobby Keane, one of a Waterford squirearchical family in 1938 and had two daughters. She used her married name for her later novels, several of which (Good Behaviour, Time After Time) have been adapted for television. Between 1928 and 1956, she wrote eleven novels, and some of her earlier plays, under the pseudonym M. J. Farrell. Her husband died suddenly in 1946, and following the failure of a play she published nothing for twenty years. In 1981, Good Behaviour came out under her own name. The novel was warmly received and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.
Reviews
She was . . . marvellous * Guardian *
I admired many authors. But Molly, I loved -- Diana Athill
Keane's distinctive blend of elegant savagery and deep affection . . . its human relationships tortured like bonsai by good form, its open-hearted, sensual passion for horses, dogs and landscape * Evening Standard *
A writer of genius * Wall Street Journal *
Book Information
ISBN 9781844083992
Author Molly Keane
Format Paperback
Page Count 304
Imprint Virago Press Ltd
Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
Weight(grams) 230g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 21mm
