House of Trelawney
by Hannah Rothschild
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Pub Date Feb 06 2020 | Archive Date Jun 17 2021
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Description
A dazzling comedy of manners about old money, new money and no money by the bestselling, Baileys Prize-shortlisted Hannah Rothschild.
The seat of the Trelawney family for over 700 years, Trelawney Castle was once the jewel of the Cornish coast. Each successive Earl spent with abandon, turning the house and grounds into a sprawling, extravagant palimpsest of wings, turrets and follies. But as the centuries passed the Earls of Trelawney, their ambition dulled by generations of pampered living, failed to develop other skills. Now in 2008 the house – its paintings and furniture sold off to pay death duties, its grounds diminished, the gardens choked with weeds – has begun to resemble its owners: faded, crumbling, and out-of-date.
Jane, the put-upon wife of the current Earl, Kitto, scraping a life for her children and in-laws in a few draughty rooms of the big house, is trapped by Trelawney Castle; while Blaze, Kitto’s sister, has made a killing in the City – and a complete turkey of her personal life. Long-estranged, the two women are brought back together when a letter arrives; and soon after it, an unwelcome young guest. Grudgingly reunited, Blaze and Jane must band together to take charge of their new charge – and save the house of Trelawney.
With formidable sharpness, delicious irreverence and a very wicked wit, House of Trelawney is a glorious send-up of recession Britain and its carnival of bastard bankers and down-at-heel toffs. An eccentric gem of a satire, and an unexpected romance, it asks how we are connected, what we owe to one another, and how to carry on existing in a world which has outgrown us.
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Praise for The Improbability of Love:
'A deliciously wicked satire ... It’s exquisitely written, shimmering with eye-catching detail ... A masterpiece' Daily Mail
'Like a Rococo painting, this clever, funny, beguiling and wholly humane romance is a treat worthy of its subject' Independent
'Novel of the week … Ingenious' Mail on Sunday
'Though this novel goes into the darkest of dark places, the overall tone is totally delicious; conspicuous consumption on this scale hasn’t been seen since the Eighties' The Times
'Her writing shows brain as well as heart' Economist
'A romp, a joy, and an inspired feast of clever delights. Reading this book is like a raid on a high-end pastry shop – you marvel at the expertise and cunning of the creations, while never wanting the deliciousness to end' Elizabeth Gilbert
Available Editions
| ISBN | 9781526600608 |
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Featured Reviews
Helen J, Reviewer
A tale of faded grandeur, of a truly dysfunctional, eccentric family with centuries of wealth degraded over the generations reduced to their last old master painting in a decrepit, draughty old stately pile with empty fuel tanks, living on mince at every meal, with a delightfully deluded Earl and Countess living in the past in one wing.
Kitto the incompetent heir invests money they haven’t got into ever more threadbare moneymaking notions, while his long suffering wife Jane tries to hold an ever more estranged family together.
With the story of the financial crash of the first decade of the 21st Century running in the background and Kitto’s sister Blaze trying to alleviate the damage, this is an, at times, laugh out loud story with a fabulously unpleasant baddie in the mould of Gordon Gecko, not to mention an insect obsessed aunt roaming the corridors looking for specimens for her collection.
I thoroughly enjoyed this romp and was genuinely shocked by Kitto’s son’s announcement at his coming of age party near the end, and recommend it without hesitation.
Rhoda B, Reviewer
I loved The Improbability of Love so much, that when I saw there are another book by the same author, I jumped at the chance to review it.
Trelawney castle is old, beautiful and crumbling away. The family all love living there, but there is a tradition that once the current earl comes of age, his siblings are banished from the castle with a symbolic gift. These siblings have to make their own way in the world. The current Earl fancies himself an investment banker and keeps putting first his money and then his wife's money into bad investments. His sister, Blaze, on the other hand, is a brilliant investment banker and foretells the coming of the sub prime mortgage crash.
What makes the book are the characters, they are all quite extreme in their own ways and you are so invested in them that you follow the twists and turns of the story just to see that they come out okay. There's quite a lot of head hopping going on - normally, I hate this, but in this case, I was never confused as to which person's head I was in. Besides, I was so invested in these people that I'd probably have put up with it even if it was done badly (which it wasn't - this psychic distance done well). The house itself is character in the book.
I genuinely enjoyed this book and raced through it. Wonderfully wry and compelling.
I got a review copy of this book via Netgalley.
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