Product Description

A gentle romance begins innocently enough in the stalls of a London theatre where Catherine is enjoying her ninth and Christopher his thirty-sixth visit to the same play. He is a magnificent young man with flame-coloured hair. She is the sweetest little thing in a hat. There is just one complication: Christopher is twenty-five, while Catherine is just a little bit older. Flattered by the passionate attentions of youth, Catherine, with marriage and motherhood behind her, is at first circumspect, but finally succumbs to her lover's charms. The engaging humour of this autobiographical novel blunts the bitter edge of irony in the hypocrisy of 1920s society.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #506288 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 424 pages

Review
'Worldly, sharp, witty ... Try to write like that, and her gift will seem very enviable and elusive' Terence de Vere White *'She has a wild sense of comedy and a vision - continually thwarted though it was - of potential happiness' Penelope Mortimer

About the Author
A greatly admired literary figure of her time, Elizabeth von Arnim was born in 1866 and brought up in England. She spent later years in Switzerland, the French Riviera and America, where she died in 1941.

Customer Reviews

Love across the ages
This book follows the story of an enthusiastic young man, in his mid-20's, who meets an attractive widow, in her mid-40's, when they sit next to each other in the cinema at repeated showings of a film they are both slightly obsessed by. The young man falls head over heels in love with the widow, who is both flattered and concerned by his passion. At first she tries to push him away, aware as she is of the disapproval any relationship with him will bring from her friends and family (she has a daughter is her early 20's who has married a vicar of around 50). However, the widow soon falls completely in love with the young man and, in addition to worrying about what friends and family will think, starts to get concerned about her looks, and the fact that she only appears young enough for her lover when fully made up. The story is a powerful one about the disparities of age in a relationship, the joys and worries such a relationship can bring, and the author's message that such matches are rarely, if ever, made in heaven, but come with a price attached. Clearly based on her own experience (Von Arnim had had just such a relationship with a much younger man) this book tells a powerful tale of the twists and turns of an unusual love and is very nicely crafted, with some good plot twists. Von Arnim writes with conviction and her style is impressive. A thought provoking book.