Book Description
When Don, an aristocratic young Notting Hill bohemian, inherits St John's, a run-down medieval manor house in the depths of the Suffolk countryside, he decides to form a commune with Tessa, an artist, and her friend Deedee. They have an idealist's dream of self-sufficiency, sharing and harmony that seems initially to succeed. It is only when they try to build on this fantasy by introducing others - the mesmerising and charismatic Jack, and single mother Helen and her disturbed small daughter Beauty - that the balance is upset. Tensions emerge and friction builds until a tragic accident finally separates them. Years later, Tessa returns to the house to face again the tragedy that made her flee St John's and come to terms with the fact that her friends betrayed her.
Synopsis
Lucy English's third novel is set in a Suffolk commune in the Seventies where, beneath the blissful summer surface, the young inhabitants are caught in a downward spiral ending in tragedy. When Don, an aristocratic young Notting Hill poet, inherits a stately home in the depths of the Suffolk countryside from an elderly relative, he decides to move there taking with him an artist, Tessa and her best friend, Deedee. A menage a trois develops and as they form a commune and begin to grow their own vegetables, they live together in rural harmony. It is only when they decide to enlarge their group, bringing in strangers encountered at fairs and in pubs -- the mesmerising and charismatic Jack, a single mother Helen and her troublesome six-year-old daughter, Beauty -- that the balance is upset, tensions emerge and the friction builds to its horrific climax.
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