House of Trelawney by Hannah Rothschild
House of Trelawney by Hannah Rothschild
Welcome to a modern day version of Downtown Abbey. The Trelawneys, a British aristocratic family, are struggling to keep the dream alive on one of England’s greatest estates. Times are changing, and the reader will quickly discover that the current 25th Earl, Kitto, isn’t equipped to deal with a crumbling estate in the 21st century; an estate inhabited by the family for 800 years with the older generation locked in a distant bubble of grand parties attended by Royals with large numbers of staff attending to your every need.
The story begins in 2008 just before the collapse of Lehman Brothers, and Kitto has taken some financial risky positions in the hope of making some much needed money. His sister, Blaze, who didn’t inherit the estate, but rather saw herself banished due to a centuries old rule, is living as a fund manager in London and is one of the few to predict the financial crisis. Kitto’s wife, Jane, is working herself to the bone trying to keep everybody (her husband, her less than grateful children and her parents-in-law) happy, running the estate while Kitto is away in London taking on his duties at the House of Lords.
The financial collapse brings Trelawney to its knees and all the eccentric characters at Trelawney as well as in London begin to come alive, not to mention all the skeletons that start tumbling out of the closets. Into this chaos and sense of impending doom steps a young woman, the daughter of Kitto’s early Cambridge love interest. She is returning from India after her mother’s death and is about to turn everything on its head.
Hannah Rothschild is a talented writer with a knack for storytelling and adept at using her background as a historian to add color and history. The House of Trelawney is the story of growing up with history constantly looking over your shoulder to see if you are doing an adequate job, and how living up to expectations in a world where appearances is everything most certainly is not all that it’s cracked up to be, in spite of all the land (you once had), all the Royals and dignitaries (you once hosted). The book is also the story of how sometimes history and legacy chooses you and not the other way around and how as much as you might want to, you cannot deny your heart.
The author has filled the book with lots of interesting characters and given them room to unfold. The family dynamics are the strength of the book - only made more interesting by the addition of wonderfully dry British humor. Hannah Rothschild is already working (slowly, she says) on a follow-up and that is good news!
Pick it up if you liked…..Downtown Abbey (series or movie), Maria Semple or if you enjoy a good story set against a beautiful British backdrop and an aristocracy trying to reinvent (and save) itself.
Happy reading!
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