A Price for Everything

This is my first experience of Sheepshanks but it won't be my last. Her beautifully written characters are the part of this book I liked best -- particularly the children and adolescents, who are notoriously difficult for writers to get right. Each of the children/adolescents were distinctive and believable individuals. The "heroine" is flawed but likeable, as is her husband and even the vastly annoying mother-in-law. The plot involves an upper class (but not particularly rich) British family living in a wonderful manor house that is falling down around them. There's no money to fix it up (it will take millions) and the husband (who inherited the house, which has been in his family for 200 years) wants to move to a smaller house nearby and sell the white elephant. His wife loves the house and is determined to find a way to continue living there. There are four children, a couple who no longer seem to love each other, a mother-in-law who is wealthy but brings trouble everywhere she goes, a supposed "monk" (brought by the mother-in-law) who is part of a secretive organization called the Brothers of Love, the husband's half-sister, a 16-year-old who gets into scrapes, and a couple of lovers. Unlike so many books, which could be improved by being edited to be shorter, this book could have been 50 pages longer and I think would have been better. Some scenes that would help the plot seem to have been left out (like people abruptly falling in love with too little description -- suddenly they're there without the reader quite understanding how they got to this point.) I also felt that the ending illness was contrived and detracted from the literary merit of this book.Nevertheless, this book has real literary merit but is also quite readable. I read it in a couple of days because I was enjoying it so much.

This was my first look at a book by Mary Sheepshanks. It was a great read-like a modern, humorous form of Jane Austen. The characters held my interest. It seems obvious that Sonia's devotion was more to the Dunstan manor than to her husband. Sonia , an artist and mother, seems quite selfish at times, not really trying to understand her husband, Archie, and he retaliates by having a brief affair. Neither of them seem to work very hard at repairing their marriage. Sonia's mother-in-law is obnoxious but fascinating. The author does an excellent job of describing the Dunstan children, who are lively and individual. I thought the ending was great, not really a surprise but satisfying.The author gives a tantalizing glimpse of life in an English manor house.

Dreamy Sonia was once a promising artist. She still paints, but in a vague sort of way. Her real life encompasses four children, a stale marriage to a dull but nice man, and an incomprehensible but fierce devotion to her husband's crumbling manor, Duntan. All of Sonia's passions and hopes revolve around saving the house, which needs extensive and costly repairs. She has, however, no firm plan to save it, and dreamily drifts through her days hoping for a miracle. She manages to do this despite an influx of the most hilarious and finely drawn characters: a part-time cook whose best efforts defy even the E. coli bug; a mother-in-law, Rosamunde, who is part grande dame, part hippy; Rosamunde's late-in-life teenaged daughter Martha, who is apt to go punk at the very worst times; and a shady erstwhile monk, who is described so well we can almost smell him. These creatures float in and out of Sonia's and Archie's life, as does Archie's buxom mistress, who is married to an irritating, French-spouting snob who is called "Jolie Roger" behind his back. Need I say more? This is a great read, charming, evocative, and well-written. It combines real insight with humor and charm.

This was a wonderful 'find' for me. I love books about English life. I can't wait to read the next on by her. Her characters were well developed and very real. I loved the glimpse into everyday life. Very enjoyable

Thanks to Rosamunde Pilcher, I discovered Mary Sheepshanks. Having read everything by Rosamunde, I was browsing the bookstore for another British author. I saw this book, with the words "Rosamunde Pilcher's Bookshelf" on it. What a great idea! I've often wondered what my favorite authors like to read. Like Rosamunde, Mary brings you into the lives of her British subjects. And she has such a sense of humor about everyday life! I laughed hysterically many times while reading this. Why only an eight for a rating? The perfect ten belongs to Rosamunde.