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The Legacy Of Hartlepool Hall (2012)

by Paul Torday(Favorite Author)

3.27 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0297863207 (ISBN13: 9780297863205)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Weidenfeld & Nicolson

review 1: Ed Hartlepool has never worked, nor has his father, or his father's father. There was never any need; there was always money... and plenty of it.But annoying letters begin arriving at Ed's house in the south of France. Letters from accountants, and lawyers, and the bank. Letters that, when Ed finally deigns to read them, paint a very bleak picture. Ed is on the brink of losing Hartlepool Hall, the family home for generations. Action must be taken.He returns to Middlesbrough in northern England to face up to his responsibilities as the sole surviving Hartlepool heir. The only answer to his financial troubles, according to Geoff Tarset, a local developer, is to sell the place and turn it into luxury flats with WiFi and giant-screen televisions, a golf course, and a spa. Ed i... mores horrified at the prospect. But there is no other option. In facing up to his problems, Ed must also deal with Horace, the loyal but very elderly family butler, as well as his troubled childhood friend, Annabel Gazebee.Not to mention, there is a charming visitor staying at Hartlepool Hall who claims she was once Ed's father's mistress. Is Lady Alice Birtley telling the truth? Why isn't her name listed in Debrett's? Why does Ed feel so drawn to her, and so comforted by her presence?This is another excellent book from the author of "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen." Highly recommended.
review 2: Rather typical of Torday's recent novels, the fairly posh or landed gentry going through hard times and having something fairly sinister happening to them, while also being a bit of a commentary on the financial crisis. Which, to be fair, is a hell of a niche. Interesting that he states that this was the last of his novels with this crop of characters though, and that his next work will be something completely different, it seems that he's recognised that he's written himself into an early rut.Anyway, it's quite well written, in the way that Torday always is. No flowery prose, no twisting textual flights of fantasy, it's all about the plot with Paul, and I quite like his crisp simplistic sentences which still manage to captivate the reader. The kind of thing which you can read in an airport, while talking to the people about you, and being in no danger of losing the narrative arc. Which, in this case, covers the burden of inheritance, from one man inheriting a country mansion and all its debts, and a lady who's inheritance is one of loneliness and depression via an over-bearing father. With much interlacing and interfacing between the two.Slight, but pleasant. He does need a change of style though, because his "The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce" said all this and much, much more, and remains the high-point of his writing career, so far the only novel of his which still retains a troubling resonance with me. less

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