Middle-aged Catherine Middleton, married to an obtuse but endearing older man, is the still center of a swirl of two generations of "gentry" on the brink of WW II. The activities of youngsters and contemporaries go on around her and it is only gradually that one sees how, without conscious manipulation, nothing happens without her. The characters are subtly and humorously drawn.
Before Lunch (Barsetshire, #8)
