Penny Vincenzi (1939–2018)

In general, I’m not too much of a short story fan but I will read absolutely anything that Penny Vincenzi writes. I adore her grand novels of love, family, fortune and loss but of course, they take time to write. Love in the Afternoon and other delights was the last of her books I had on the shelf. It seemed a perfect time just before Christmas to dip in and out of these short stories and writings as it was such a busy period.

I was a little sceptical about how Penny Vincenzi would be able show more to tie up everything in a story over 20 pages instead of 600. I was also a bit worried if they would have the same sparkle as her novels. Of course, I worried needlessly. The stories are instantly recognisable as Vincenzi’s and the endings work beautifully. The main theme is as the title suggests, love. But it’s not just romance. There is the love between father and son (The Mermaid) and the reluctance of the son to allow a new woman into his father’s life. There are a few affairs too (Love in the Afternoon and The Glimpses, which has the best ending!). The Brooch explores sisterly love and the argumentative side that crushes it. There are also some articles by Penny Vincenzi, on getting older to her favourite books. I really enjoyed this part of the book, as I really don’t hear too much about authors themselves, let alone in written format! She proves that she is just as sparkly and witty when writing fact in addition to fiction.

Sadly, this was a fast read but it confirmed that I will definitively read anything of Penny Vincenzi’s work. I love the British tone of her novels, and the peek into the big houses and lavish parties. But most of all, I loved the twists in this short stories – they were truly delightful.

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I had read the No Angel trilogy by Vincenzi and enjoyed it quite a bit, but I think she's made a permanent fan out of me after I finished this book. It has so many things I would normally hate in fiction, but she pulls it off and makes it into a completely addictive read.

I normally hate books that jumps between different groups of characters. I had a hard time with it here at first, but eventually I got to know who was who, and I actually got to liking pretty much everybody quite a bit. It's show more amazing to me that I could grow to like that many characters as much as I did, and a lot of them did things I just hated.

The book was also set in a period I had absolutely no knowledge of. I don't often read books set in the 80s (or at least consciously set in the 80s, making references to things that would date it), let alone London in the 80s, and in addition all of the characters are suffering from an economic problem caused by Lloyd's of London that I just... did not know about until I read this. Everything is explained though, and I got settled into the plot pretty quickly.

As I said, a lot of the characters do things I hated. I generally hate it when characters have affairs with one another, which happens here a lot. A LOT. There's a really serious one towards the end of the novel that I absolutely dreaded reading about every time it was brought up. The fact that I still adored all these characters while they were being unfaithful is, once again, amazing to me.

It's just like reading a soap opera. Except I hate soap operas, and I absolutely loved this. I couldn't put it down. I'll probably read absolutely everything Penny Vincenzi writes from now on, even though I'm pretty sure most of it is a lot like this. It's just great stuff. show less

The words Penny Vincenzi and cosmetics company when combined got me all in a flutter when I heard about this book. I love Penny’s books and I’m a cosmetics junkie so when she writes about this, of course I’m going to read it! The real question is, why did it take me so long? I think I wanted to savour this big book, so I waited until I was on holidays to really get the most out of it (translation: stay up very, very late reading). It’s also pretty big at 753 pages, and I don’t read show more too many chunksters these days for unknown, likely trivial reasons.

A Perfect Heritage has everything I want in a Penny Vincenzi book:
- Gorgeous dress on front cover
- A list of characters (I literally swoon over these, then think I’ll never remember them all but of course, I do because Penny Vincenzi is a master at making each one a complete individual)
- A number of boardroom battles, cloaked in civility
- Some truly gorgeous characters
- At least one heinous villain
- Blind twists in plot
- A happily ever after for the characters I’ve come to regard as close friends.

The storyline of A Perfect Heritage centres on The House of Farrell, a decaying cosmetics house that hasn’t kept up with the times. It clings to one hero product, The Cream, but it’s outdated and old-ladyish. Enter Bianca Bailey (top business mind with an awesome name) to turn the company around and make it popular again in the Queen’s Jubilee year. Bianca knows what hard work is, but she hadn’t thought that working with Lady Athina Farrell, co-founder would be so difficult. Lady Farrell sees herself as THE name and The Boss of the company. She’s also not averse to underhand tactics to get her way. It’s a full battle to try to bring the House of Farrell forward, which has disastrous effects on Bianca’s home life. The employees of the House of Farrell, both old and new, have their own problems and secrets. Some of these in turn could be problematic for the company…

One of the strengths of Penny Vincenzi’s writing for me is the detail she puts into her characters. I now know so much about Bianca, husband Patrick and their children I feel like I should be sending them a Christmas card this year! Each member of this novel’s cast is intricately drawn and truly individual. No need to refer to the character list after very long! I could see the lines of stress on Bianca’s face as Athina usurped her and the joy as she solved a seemingly unsurmountable problem. I could see Bertie Farrell bumbling around the office blindly, yet caring so much for his staff. I cried with Susie as she was blackmailed and all along, the wise eyes of Florence helped to guide the House of Farrell gently but forcibly forward.

There’s a lot of tension in this book as the House of Farrell falls into one calamity after another. Some were so dire that I couldn’t possibly see how Bianca and co could find a way out. True, not all of the solutions were successful but this dose of real life only made the story sparkle more for me. A page-turner with an engaging set of characters – what more could you ask for in a book?

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This book would be a great vacation read. I loved the setting: London in the 60s and 70s. The characters were a bit like the rich and beautiful people you expect to meet in a miniseries. I also liked the way Vincenzi moved the action along by alternating conversations.
What really makes the book stick with me though is the way she portrays the lives of the women characters. I think it is easy to forget that there was a time not all that long ago when a man could say 'I forbid my wife to work' show more and be taken seriously.
Thoroughly entertaining, well written, and I expect she is setting us up for a sequel featuring Emmie. show less