A Sensible Life

I went into this book sure that I would like it, it sure sounded like the kind of book I would love. Instead, I found it slow moving, pointless, and filled with unsympathic characters (downright annoying). I found Flora fascinating, but everything I learned about her, I had to learn through characters that I disliked intensely. By the end, I really dreaded finishing the book.

Randomly got this second hand and had no idea what to expect, having never heard of the author. Enjoyable read which kept me engaged the whole time despite being fairly lengthy. The central character of Flora made it for me. Oddly sexually fixated story at times. Found Cosmo and Hubert difficult to distinguish and mixed them up at times. Found the ending a little unsatisfying but probably should have foreseen it.

A frothy and enjoyable story of Flora - an unwanted child whose parents spend the whole time shagging rather than looking after. Flora looks after herself and this story centres on the 3 loves of her life: Hubert, Cosmo & Felix over a period of 40 years from 1926 to the mid 1960s.

Flora Trevelyan lernt als junges Mädchen im Jahre 1926 die Schmerzen der Liebe kennen und versucht, sich ihr Leben so einzurichten, daß sie ihr nichts mehr anhaben können. Doch der Zufall (Das Schicksal? Die Liebe?) macht ihr immer wieder einen Strich durch die Rechnung.

1/2020. Unusual for a novel that begins as a bildungsroman to turn into a story about ageing, but both are typical Mary Wesley themes.

Little Flora makes friends with holidaymakers, and finds herself falling in love. The book is about her growing up and learning about life. Reassuring if rather too many coincidences, and pleasant enough characters on the whole.

Ever so British, sarcastic people, money never matters, but hey, a lovely story with an easy lift to it.