The Other Side of Paradise
1920s England. Heiress Jean Buckman wants for nothing. As daughter of the American ambassador to Britain and his super-wealthy socialite wife, she is thrust into the whirl of the debutantes’ social season. Despite finding the process tedious and unfulfilling, she nevertheless accepts aristocrat Edward Warre’s proposal. But their passionless marriage becomes similar, he away drinking with his hunting parties, she at home, the dutiful wife.
A year passes and still no heir. Mother suggests a tonic for her; visit friends living on the Côte D’Azur and buy herself a bolt hole villa. This she does and, while socialising there, meets sensitive David, with whom she can open up completely, the opposite of repressed Edward. These French Riviera sojourns provide not only levels of freedom and happiness unattainable in her English life but also pregnancy, with dire consequences way beyond reasonable foresight.
Perceiving the truth, Edward makes Jean’s life even more miserable, keeping her affair confidential while rejecting the child. A second birth furthers Jean’s determination to defy tradition, resist conformity, protect her children. Then war, as it does, changes everything.
This enthralling tale of motherhood and progeniture should not be rushed, the better to savour Beaumont’s trim, detailed prose with its intriguing chapter ends and fine visual similes – “pain came and went like a lighthouse beam”. Her close examination of conflicts between duty and self-determination presents family turmoil, secrets and lies, all at their very best, but especially spotlights true love. Simply excellent.
