The merciless ladies

by Winston Graham

Book by Graham, Winston

Genres: Fiction

476 pages, Unknown Binding

First published April 1, 1980

About the author

Winston Graham was an English novelist best known for the Poldark series of historical novels set in Cornwall, though he also wrote contemporary thrillers, period novels, short stories, non-fiction, and plays. Born in Victoria Park, Manchester, he moved to Perranporth, Cornwall in 1925 and lived there for 34 years. Graham published his first novel, The House with the Stained Glass Windows, in 1934 and married Jean Williamson in 1939, who inspired the character Demelza in Poldark. During World War II, he joined the Auxiliary Coastguard Service. Graham became a member of the Society of Authors in 1945, serving as chairman from 1967 to 1969, and was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, receiving an OBE in 1983. His Poldark series began with Ross Poldark in 1945 and concluded with Bella Poldark in 2002. He wrote 30 additional novels, short stories, and non-fiction works, including the acclaimed thriller Marnie, adapted by Alfred Hitchcock in 1964. Several other novels, including The Walking Stick and Fortune Is a Woman, were adapted for film. Graham also wrote plays, some adapted from his novels. His works have been translated into 31 languages, and his autobiography, Memoirs of a Private Man, was published posthumously in 2003.

Reviews

[claire flacke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Traditional storytelling

Graham provides a rich backdrop for his plot in which essentially British middle class characters pursue their hopes and dreams and suffer the consequences of an ill-matched marriage alliance. I particularly enjoyed the writer's description of Holly's eccentric and scholarly parents ,his court room scenes and clever build up of tension at the end of the novel.

[Jann · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is a fictional biography of the artist Paul Stafford told by a man who had been a friend of his childhood and youth. The narrator is presumably in his older years at the time of writing and he draws from his reminiscences to relate events which took place over a period of about 30 years. It is set early in the 20th century.

The pace of the book starts quite slowly as scenes from their childhood are related but they are quite essential as they describe many of their mutual friends who are important in the development of the plot. Much like a river, the flow builds through the mid-section with life becoming more typical and their paths diverging, then reconnecting, as Paul's artistic training and the narrator, Bill Grant's career as a journalist takes him away. Many parts of Paul's life are known only from what Bill is told by mutual friends or in the papers.

Paul seems to have a temperament common to artists in that he becomes absorbed in projects and this makes his life with women often quite tempestuous. His first marriage falls apart and he is taken up by Diana, a woman who sponsors him into the upper class and finally financial success. His portraits are well done and his fame spreads at least within London circles.

The tension and pace builds when he quarrels with Diana and in a fit of pique she sues him. The worry has Paul taking a time-out from his painting and he invites Bill to join him on a boat trip for a month. This gives a brief respite before the pace again picks up and from there it is like the river going through rapids and turbulence before eventually coming to its ultimate conclusion.

I enjoyed the book very much all through, however the shocking conclusion made my heart pound. These and the summing up have made The Merciless Ladies one of my favourite books of 2016.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

That Winston Graham can WRITE! He does historical novels with the best, whirlwind romance with one hand (maybe a hand and a half!) tied behind his back and my new favorite of his, introspective fictional biography! I really enjoyed this book. It follows the career of a "come from nowhere" artist (Paul Stafford) who rises to society portraitist darling, who then turns his back on worldly success and follows his muse to a remote, primitive cottage in the Lake District. Along the way, we meet his prep school friends (his father poured a small legacy into his only son's education,) his mentors, his first wife and several mistresses, all chronicled by his best friend, William Grant. Worlds collide when
Stafford and Grant take a run-down boat on a sailing adventure and end up running into the eccentric family who had befriended both of them as school boys, but with whom they had lost touch. The antics of this family provide most of the comedy relief of this otherwise rather somber tale. The crux here is that the brilliant, but ungainly, daughter of the family and the artist fall in love. The rest of the story mainly concerns the ins and outs of the family law legal system at the time when husbands were entirely responsible for alimony to ex-wives and what Paul Stafford's first wife put him through. The narrator, William Grant becomes increasingly central to the action as he strives to help his artist friend. The denouement was pretty surprising and the pace of the last 30 pages is breakneck. The ending however, fell flat and I found it disappointing. The rest of the book is so good that it still rates 4 stars! (it's the writing, I tell you!)

[Bea Alden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in the 1920s, story of a gifted painter who feels his art is corrupted by the need to paint portraits of society women. Great character studies throughout the book.