Product Description

In 1944 Henry Tillotson brings his new wife, Margaret, home to his farmhouse in the English countryside. Margaret is a strange, unpleasant woman, determined, it seems, to make Henry's life miserable.

'Poor Henry!' say his friends, as they visit at weekends and holidays. 'What an awful life he has!' But Henry is not at all the sad and disappointed man we might expect him to be. He manages to enjoy life, and indeed, has quite a lot of fun, one way and another...

Mary Wesley's story takes a sharp but light-hearted look at love, sex, and marriage - and the things people will do to get what they want.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #351544 in Books
• Published on: 1993-02-01
• Binding: Paperback
• 389 pages

Synopsis
When James and Matthew spent the weekend with Henry Tillotson in 1954, they took an instant liking to the country house that Henry had inherited from his father. His wife was a bit odd though - she never seemed to get out of bed. Gossip suggested that Henry had inherited her as well.

From the Back Cover
Henry brought his new bride, Margaret, to Cotteshaw in 1944. On the threshold she gave him a black eye and went straight to bed where she remained, apart from the occasional malevolent outburst, for the rest of her life.

Two young couples, who encountered her first in 1954, became regular if uneasy house guests over many years, listening, speculating, keeping a watchful eye on Margaret's door until finally, piecing together the gossip, the rumours, the mystery, they found themselves tangled in the web of Henry's life.

About the Author
Mary Wesley
Mary Wesley was born near Windsor in 1912. Her education took her to the London School of Economics and during the War she worked in the War Office. She has also worked part-time in
the antiques trade. Mary Wesley has lived in London, France, Italy, Germany and several places in the West Country. She now lives 'rather a hermit's existence' in Devon. She has previously written for children and comments that her 'chief claim to fame is arrested development, getting my first novel published at the age of seventy'. That first novel, Jumping the Queue, is published by Black Swan, as are her later novels, The Camomile Lawn, Second Fiddle, Harnessing Peacocks, The Vacillations of Poppy Carew, Not That Sort of Girl, A Sensible Life, A Dubious Legacy, An Imaginative Experience and Part of the Furniture. Mary Wesley was awarded the CBE in the 1995 New Year's honour list.

Customer Reviews

Lives unfold and unravel before your eyes.
this book relates the story of Henry Tillotson, from his marriage in 1944 until his death in the 80's, and whilst telling us the tale introduces us to a multitude of other characters along the way, Hanry's wife Margaret who doesn't get out of bed; the Jonathans, the possible fruit of Henry's fathers loins; two young couples visiting Cotteshaw, Henry's house; and of course Calypso Grant puts in an appearance. The people in Mary Wesley's books are people you wish you knew, interesting, kind, funny, irrepressable people, as well as irritating and endearing, above all these are humans, and whilst there can be a feeling of how the other half lives about this book the main feeling is one of being a fly on the wall, desperate to discover the mysteries of each persons life. Wesley deals with such basic human instincts as sex and love in a matter of fact way, which makes them no less shocking, and no less wonderful.