The Summer of the Royal Visit

by Isabel Colegate

As the city of Bath prepares for the arrival of Queen Victoria, the curate enters into a liaison with the wife of a prominent citizen; rumors of corruption surround the architectural competition for the design of a new hotel; and an imposter and a clairvoyant move through the city.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction

219 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Isabel Colegate was born in 1931 in London and was educated at Runton Hill School in Norfolk. In 1952 she went into partnership with Anthony Blond, who was then starting a literary agency and would go on to found a publishing house, and in 1953 she married Michael Briggs, with whom she has a daughter and two sons.

Colegate’s first novel, The Blackmailer, was published by Blond in 1958 and was followed by two more novels focusing on English life in the years after the Second World War: A Man of Power (1960) and The Great Occasion (1962). These were later republished by Penguin in an omnibus volume, Three Novels, in 1983.

Though she has written a number of other successful novels, as well as reviews for the Spectator, Daily Telegraph and TLS, Colegate is best known for her bestseller and major critical success The Shooting Party (1980), which won the W.H. Smith Literary Award and was adapted for a now-classic 1985 film version. The book is still in print today (with Counterpoint in the US and as a Penguin Modern Classic in the UK). More recently, she has written the acclaimed novel Winter Journey (1995) and the non-fiction work Pelican in the Wilderness: Hermits and Solitaries (2002).

Isabel Colegate was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in1981. She and her husband live in Somerset.

Valancourt Books

Reviews

[Sarah Plum · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this as it was listed as an unknown gem on one of the various websites, literary journals or podcasts I follow. Truth be told I am not sure how it ended up in my house. I brought it on a trip and was drawn in from the beginning by the writing and characters. I enjoyed reading it and expecting a sort of cozy comedy of manners settled in for the ride. And yet it became something entirely different - about half way or 2 thirds of the way through - darker and yet also more uplifting. Now I am very happy to have discovered a new writer (and she is still alive at 91!) and will be reading more of her.

[Kristine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in Bath in 1876 the story traverses the social spectrum with a story that starts with a comedy of manners and an innocent but ill-fated romance and progressively leads us to darker and perverse places. I really enjoyed the atmospheric setting, the sharply observed characters, the exploration of self-doubt, ambition and the clever twists on didactic Victorian novels. I didn't like ending, and although it was satisfying to 'tie up loose ends', the last few chapters felt like an anticlimax after the drama and revelations of the preceding chapters. A lovely read with some very unexpected turns in the story.

[Mark Speed · Rating 2 out of 5]

The fact that this is the only review and no one has uploaded the cover speaks volumes for this novel.

This was a present from my mother a year after I moved to Bath, where this story is set during Queen Victoria's rein. The fact that my mother 'borrowed' it and then lent it to my aunt and I never asked for it back says something about the target audience.

It was drivel. Drivel about middle-class meanderings, manoeuverings and sensibilities. The stakes couldn't have been lower. It escapes a single star because presumably part of 'my problem' is that I'm not in the target audience.

[Dark-Draco · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is set at the end of Queen Victoria's reign and the city prepares for a visit from its monarch. But an architectural competition and rising heat of the summer brings the harmonious facade of the middle-classes crumbling down. Rivalries come to the fore and chaos starts to reign.

A great drama, full of imagination and wit. Quite enjoyed reading it though not something I would normally touch. Hope you enjoy it.

[scarlettraces · Rating 4 out of 5]

(4.5)