It adds up to a moving depiction of human passions, frailties, and struggles. Roberts cleverly changes narrators to provide alternate perspectives on the developing intricacies and intimacies, and is especially good with the sections in which Patrick describes the challenges of being gay in 1950s Britain, a period when sex between men was illegal and gay people were subjected to blackmail. But Tom and Patrick, a gay art curator, are also attracted to one another. Her infatuation with Tom continues into adulthood, after he becomes a policeman and, eventually, Marion’s spouse. Marion explains how at 14 she met the third member of this romantic triangle, Tom, the slightly older brother of a school friend. Having baited this hook, Roberts then flashes back 48 years to provide the backstory for the dramatic opening. The story begins in 1999 with the line, “I considered starting with these words: I no longer want to kill you-because I really don’t.” The speaker is Marion, and her listener, Patrick, whom she is caring for after he’d suffered a severe stroke, is her captive audience. The book takes inspiration from E M Forster and the writers long-term relationship with Bob Buckingham and his wife. Roberts ( The Good Plain Cook) serves up a complex and nuanced exploration of a love triangle in Peacehaven, England.
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