Genre:
Fiction (Historical) dealing with class issues
#3 The Mallen
Litter
Katie
Bensham marries a man 20 years her senior and their only child, Lawrence, has
Down’s Syndrome (one can sense the discrimination that this child would have
faced and it is heart breaking). Barbara
and Dan have triplets and Ben, whom the novel focuses on, is a typical Mallen
and displays the streak. His mother
pretty much hates him as he resembles the man who fathered her. During the war, Ben suffers severe shell shock
and ends up at High Banks Hall, which Anna has turned into a nursing
clinic. Ben’s carer is the beautiful
Hannah Radlet, the daughter of Michael and Sara, and they fall in love. In the end it is the sweet natured Lawrence
that helps bring them together. Barbara
and Michael rekindle their love and have an affair while Dan has an affair with
the nanny of his children and
she bares him a daughter.
And again the
editing done to the novel leaves much to be desired as there are spelling and grammar errors, but again I suspect that is because the copy that
I read was one of the first edition paperback prints from the late 1970s. I found this book the most gripping and
struggled to put it down. It is by far my
favourite of the three as I love the way she ties up all
the loose ends. The biggest question I kept asking myself was whether Ben and Hannah's love would conquer their family problems and put an end to the bad luck that comes with the Mallen Streak... And I'd love to tell you, but that would spoil the story so you'll just have to read it yourself.
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