Customer Reviews

The House At Old Vine

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Although disappointed in the first book in the series (Town House) I went ahead and read this one as I had already bought it, on the back of the amazing reviews. I would agree with the other reviewer, who notes that the protagonists in the book live their lives, as we do, bearing and showing the traces of our heritage without necessarily knowing that that is what they are. And the concept, following one family through the turns and roundabouts of a tumultuous period of history, is excellent.

However. As in the first book, there are few likeable characters, and they all (relentlessly) come to a sad or bad end. And again, although there are interesting tidbits of historical detail scattered throughout (and they are tidbits, such as a hostelry suffering a loss of business when big carts, unable to navigate old narrow streets, come into use), there is not much history. One quirk of the family is that the odd circumstances of the plot result in there never being more than 2 children born in a generation, and almost always only 1; defying both the usual rate of births and deaths during the period. More historically consistent (at least in attitude) is the ease with which 2 rather young children see that adults who thwarted them get their (fatal) comeuppance, and the passing on of that 'bad seed' from one to the other across generations. Spare the rod, indeed.

As with the first book it reads along at a good clip, and if you enjoy serial dramas (EastEnders or All My Children come to mind) you should enjoy this. If you are looking for real history with your fiction and prefer an older style, try Anya Seton; for a newer series try Sansom's Shardlake mysteries (a bit grisly in parts, but riveting reading, and a much deeper sense of time and place).