The quartet at the heart of this delightful novel are the four Gainsborough siblings: beautiful but vain Lorna, ultra-sensitive Adrian, nature-loving Laurence and thoughtful, strange little Jenifer.
We join them in 1900 – four happy children at the heart of a loving family, idolizing their strikingly beautiful mother, shrinking from their emotionally damaged Aunt Lena and ill-tempered governess, Miss Marchant. As their world widens on the journey to adulthood – through the advent of the motor car, the horrors of the First World War, the trials and tribulations of unrequited love and unfulfilled dreams – they must fight to keep that happiness. But with Lorna compelled to make everyone love her, Adrian’s artistic genius crippled by over-sensitivity to criticism, and Laurence so intent on success in business that he forgets to really live, will Jenifer’s clear-sighted pragmatism be enough to save them?
A beautiful exploration of love and family, Quartet has a vivid cast of characters worthy of Elizabeth Gaskell and paints a wonderful, affectionate portrait of childhood to rival Richmal Crompton’s Just William.
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 9781509859481
Number of pages: 350
Weight: 399 g
Dimensions: 203 x 133 x 20 mm
It is beautifully done, full of invention and sympathy. - A. G. Macdonell, The Bystander
Miss Crompton is a master-hand at child characterisation - The Star
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