Before the War

Description

An absorbing, inventive novel of love, death and aristocracy in inter-war London. A novel of love, death and aristocracy in twenties London. Consider Vivien in November 1922. She is twenty-four, and a spinster. She wears fashionably droopy clothes, but she is plain and - worse - intelligent. Fortunately, Vivien is rich, so she can bribe a man to marry her. What nobody knows is that Vivien is pregnant, and will die in childbirth in just a few months...

After hard times and odd jobs as a lone parent, Fay Weldon became one of the top advertising copywriters of her generation. She moved to TV drama (writing the pilot episode of the iconic series Upstairs, Downstairs) then turned to novels - including the classic The Life and Loves of a She Devil and The Cloning of Joanna May. A sequel to her acclaimed Love and Inheritance trilogy, Before the War, was published in 2017. Fay's been made a CBE for services to literature and she's currently a Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.

'A romp of a read full of Weldon wit and wisdom, as well as sumptuous period detail' Daily Mail. 'Wise and witty ... filled with sharp observations' The Times. 'The quirky, singular writing style takes some getting used to, but this triumphs in the end with its unique characters and playfully ironic voice' The Irish Sun. 'A cool, sparkling, delicious book ... This is one of those rare works of fiction that will make seasoned novelists gasp ... while also offering the reader a breeze of a story' The Australian. 'A daredevil combination of farce and satire... shades of Oscar Wilde, Evelyn Waugh, P. G. Wodehouse and John Fowles' TLS. 'Looking down at her cast from amused heights, Weldon punctures their pretensions and double standards with piquant observations, keeps a detached eye on the power politics of their relationships, but also caricatures them' Guardian. 'Lively ... wry social satire' New York Times. 'Weldon, still at the top of her powers, serves up elegant prose that is witty, ironic - and emotionally distanced' North & South magazine. 'If I had to recommend just one name to the uninformed young woman who curls her lip at the word "feminist" today, I would tell her to read Fay Weldon. Not only for Weldon's vision of gender justice, but for her take-no-prisoners approach to fiction. Her plots move swiftly; her gaze is unsettlingly direct; her sentences can draw blood' The Hindu.