Mrs Fyttons Country Life [Paperback]

Mavis Cheek (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 5, 2005

Angela Fytton - wonderwife, supermother, bedroom vamp and business partner - has been unceremoniously dumped. Like many a good wife before her she has been swapped by her husband for a younger model. One day, she knows, her husband will return. Meanwhile she yields herself up to the notion that country life is pure and good and that country people are next to angels - but on moving to her country idyll, she discovers this is very far from the truth.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Treading Joanna Trollope territory but with a lighter touch, British author Cheek (Pause Between Acts) plays a roundelay on midlife marital crisis. Fortyish but still delectable, Angela Fytton has lost her beloved Ian to a "little, blonde, helpless" younger woman, just as they were getting to the point where they could relax and enjoy each other. Sadly, Angela, supermom and wife that she was, cannot get over her husband and wants him back. To that end, she formulates a plan so devious, so gorgeously simple, so prospectively effective, that it is sure to work, though his new baby with the despised "Binnie" does give her a qualm. She buys a country home and departs London, leaving her two teenagers to live with their father, allowing her former spouse to contend with all the joys of a new infant, new wife and resentful adolescents ("a walking disaster area") in the same house. Surprisingly, Angela loves the country, though its denizens are not the innocents she expected; she gets on well, and the plan goes as expected, almost. Cheek's breezy style suits this consistently amusing story, and the characterizations, while not deep, are engaging. Her very readable wry look at modern marriage has all the right ingredients: the second family, the first wife making the second life possible, the husband needing to be needed while subconsciously expecting his home life to be perfect, the usual miscommunications and separate agendas. The cleverly ironic ending adds a nice twist to a tart and larky tale. While it's unlikely the book will achieve the bestseller status it attained in England, it should appeal to the audience for domestic comedy, British style.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

What does a perfect wife do when she's dumped? If she's Angela Fytton "mumsy in the kitchen, whorish in the bedroom, stylish in the world, and efficient in the workplace" she quits London for the country, but not without a plan. No matter that ex-husband Ian has bedded and wed younger Binnie Angela intends to get him back. After leaving her two horrible teenage children with their father and the second Mrs. Fytton, she succumbs to the charms of her newly acquired country house and the community around it. Angela receives a 19th-century journal written by an earlier resident of her new abode and follows its instructions to the point of making candles out of mutton fat, then lighting them at the first party she holds for her country neighbors. The result is nearly disastrous, but it does help Angela understand what she wants from country life and life in general. Cheek's rural folk may be just this side of stereotype there's a handsome young vicar, for instance, lusted after by both the aged doctor and the doctor's buxom young housemaid but she spins a nicely paced tale with a sly sense of humor reminiscent of Fay Weldon. Cheek, the author of eight other novels (e.g., Getting Back Brahms), has produced a supremely entertaining work that was a best seller in England. For all popular fiction collections. Michele Leber, Fairfax Cty. P.L., VA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Faber & Faber (May 5, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0571225861
• ISBN-13: 978-0571225866
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 4.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,669,456 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delia and Martha fans rejoice...., August 6, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Mrs. Fytton's Country Life (Paperback)

I travel annually to the U.K with my husband (he is British i am American) and I often go to the book shops and buy a suitcase full of books to take home. Mrs. Fytton's is the last of the run from my last trip and it is a fine read! Mrs. Fytton the first spends her early days as the queen of the household mother, business woman, wife, interior decorator, bon vivant a veritable whirlwind of activity. Just a little Martha stewart crossed with a dose of Delia Smith and just a dash of Erica jong. By keeping up the smooth external veneer of a woman firmly in love with the idea of woman's liberation whilst secretly harboring a desire to please her man at all costs she loses her husband to a "younger blonder model". For revenge she leaves London, dumps her two teenage children off with her ex, his new wife and their new child and moves lock stock and pickling jar to the country to become a domestic goddess and win back the heart of her former husband. I have found myself on numerous occassions chuckling out loud on my commute on the train at the eccentricities of Mrs Fytton's neighbours. I love Mavis' style and will look for one of her other novels to read in the future.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Off the Chart Fabulous!, March 11, 2003

By 

R. Zimmerman (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mrs. Fytton's Country Life (Hardcover)

Why can't more books be this funny, well-written and wise? I, who read at every available moment, and have a stack of good books waiting to be read, actually savored Mrs Fytton's Country Life twice. Please, please read this book if you need a fine laugh. Read it twice, in fact.

5.0 out of 5 stars Very clever and well recommended!, December 1, 2011

By 

Diana M. Hockley "lacock2" (Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mrs Fyttons Country Life (Paperback)

At first I found this book hard to get into because of the style of writing - ancient household Goddess recipes and advice interspersed with the goings on in the life of Mrs Fytton, her ex-husband, his bimbette wife, toothy son and two teenage children - not to mention the extremely licentious happenings in the country!

However, when I got into the novel I really enjoyed it! Dry wit all the way through - I spent some time in Somerset last time I was in the UK so I could appreciate village life (it doesn't differ that much from here in Australia!) and what happens to the protagonists.

Very good read, clever and funny :) Recommended

Diana Hockley