This is the story of a house in Essex and the Hartford family that lived there: Lord Ashby and his wife Lady Violet; their two sons, Major James and Mr Frederick; James's wife, Jemima, and their one child, Gytha, born late in the marriage; Frederick's children (his first wife is not named): David, Hannah and Emmeline. It is also the story of Grace, a housemaid and her mother who was formerly a housemaid but now lives in the village. Grace's father was also Frederick Hartford.
The chronological story begins in June 1914 when Grace, aged 14, starts work as a housemaid at Riverton. Although she does not know it, the three children of the house: David, Hannah and Emmeline are her half siblings. For the reader it is quite easy to guess this from the clues in the text quite early on but Grace herself does not realise until quite a way through the book. In the First War some of the characters are lost whilst others return but are not the same.
The novel is constructed in the present and the past: mostly in June 1914 and the summer of 1924 and the years in between. Grace, now an old lady, is contacted by a young woman named Ursula, a distant Hartford relative from America, who wants to make a film about the Hartford family, the house at Riverton and Robbie Hunter, a young poet known by the family who died tragically in the summer of 1924.
Grace slips between the present and the past in her mind as she recalls the incidents leading up to 1924. She is worried about her grandson, Marcus, who is trying to cope with tragedy in his own life and has disappeared. It gradually becomes evident that her part in the story is crucial as is the lie that she tells Hannah in the early part of the book. The lie festers and Grace never corrects it so that Hannah, who loves secrets, believes that they have a secret between them.
The author's note at the end of the book sums up the themes and includes some titles, both fiction and non-fiction, for further reading. The historical setting is portrayed with a sure but light touch with just enough, but never too much, detail. With Emmeline we witness the downhill spiral of parties, alcolhol, jazz and fast cars; with Hannah we sympathise with women's struggle for independence and with their father Frederick we see the inevitable decline of his businesses.
The triumph of the novel is surely the plotting which is confident and skilled with all the loose ends tied up by the end, concluding with the final twist in Hannah's letter on the last page. This novel is recommended to lovers of historical fiction and a deft plot line.
