My third Elizabeth Taylor novel (after "Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont" and "Angel"). This just might be the best of all. A cast of many different characters living by the harbour in the old part of Newby. We hardly ever visit the new part. Just after the end of the second world war, the old part is as run down as some of those who live here.
The author writes with a light wit, sometimes giving us a satirical view of the various personalities. She has a great insight into human behaviour and a distinctive way of expression. Bertram is a visitor who compensates for his lack of talent as an artist with insinuating himself into the lives of the inhabitants, particularly a divorcee called Tory. "Had he begun to discover, as her husband must have discovered, that warmth and wit and loveliness are not enough. Not enough to compensate for the selfishness, the cussedness of her".
The ending is quite superb, in that we are left wondering for some time about what will happen to those who leave and those who are left.
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