Product Description

Jill expected to live happily ever after with her husband. She believed that if she worked hard enough, no one need know of the problems that lurked beneath the surface. But, when disaster strikes, Jill is catapulted alone into a new life and faces the millennium a changed and tougher woman.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #433477 in Books
• Published on: 2000-02-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

About the Author
Anita Burgh is the author of several bestselling novels, including 'Distinctions of Class', 'Breeders', 'Clare's War', 'The House at Harcourt' and 'The Visitor'. She has also written a stunning trilogy which includes 'The Broken Gate', 'The Heart's Citadel', and soon - 'The Breached Wall'. She lives in Gloucestershire.

Customer Reviews

Family life as it really is
I read The Family while recovering from a bout of flu - and found it the perfect tonic. What is better than to lose yourself in the ups and downs of other people's lives without having to leave the confines of the duvet! I shared Jillian and Jack's good times - and bad - and the laughs and tears, and was hoping against hope that she'd emerge triumphant in the end. It was such a joy to know that Jillian, who wanted so little from life and gave so much, faced up to her nightmares in such a positive manner. No twentysomething angst here - just real life - warts and all. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, and have now bought Anita Burgh's entire backlist.

Readable tale, but irritating heroine.
Jillian is an unhappy unambitious girl, with one aim in life - marriage, children and happy-ever-after. She falls in love with handsome, wealthy Jack and her future is sealed. The book follows her marriage, and the relationships with her own disfunctional family and her eccentric and unpleasant in-laws. The story is not unlike Tara Road by Maeve Binchy and if you liked that you may like this book, albeit not as well written and lacking Binchy's skill of characterisation. As with 'Tara Road' however, I spent the whole book wanting to get the poor, repressed, subservient, dutiful, lip-biting, always-see-the-best-in-everyone heroine by the throat and shake some character into her. Not only is she an all-cleaning,all-cooking, super-hostess, mother-of-mothers, and sex - "if you say so darling" saint (beautiful,slim and blonde of course), but most of her horrible family despise her for her goodness and treat her with utter contempt. The irritation at her blinkered selflessness combined with a lack of any lovable supporting characters made it difficult to get too involved in the story. Add to that the fact that all events, be they births, deaths, marriages or making a pot of tea are treated with the same stiff-upper-lip lack of outward emotion, with inner turmoil and underlying misery, mean that there is no sense of tragedy or euphoria - just one of mild, disinterested depression.

Having said all that, the book was readable, I finished it at least and if you like pretty, efficient, teeth-firmly-gritted, 'Stand By Your Man' heroines this may be the book for you - Me? - I'll be scouring the shelves for something a little more inspiring!

A good full read
Got very absorbed in the storyline. Lots of good strong characters. A good example of one of Anita's books