Charlotte Blair had worked hard all her life. Raised amongst the porters and street sellers of Covent Garden, she had achieved unusual success for a woman in 1911 -- her own flower shop. It was unfashionable, in a poor part of London, and made only a small profit, but Charlotte had a secret ambition to become one of the great floral decorators of the period, transforming the ballrooms and grand houses of the aristocracy. When she was bidden to Capel Manor for her first floral assignment, she fell in love with the house but -- cruelly -- fate snatched the commission away from her before she had even begun. It was several weeks later that she learned Capel Manor could be rented and, borrowing every penny she could, she moved her business to the beautiful old house, believing that this would give her entry into the great families of the neighbourhood. Beset with every problem, cheating gardeners, the crooked plans of her old friends in Covent Garden, and the return of Matthew Warrender, the owner of Capel Manor, Charlotte fought to realise her ambition to become the most famous floral decorator of her time.
A solidly middle-of-the-road read this one. Lagged a bit while the author felt a need to use her research and the story felt bitty and unfinished. There were times when this story of a woman breaking into the world of flower arranging and working for herself sparkled but it was often overshadowed by too much detail and attempting to keep several plots going that didn't just gel. While interesting in parts overall it just didn't work for me, maybe tighter editing would have been a bonus to this story.
I picked this up because I used to live on Capel Street in Dublin and I was wondering if it would give me a little fun insight into the Capel family, but that wasn't what the story was about, the story was more about flowers and flower breeding and arranging and the biases that the upper classes had against working and middle class.
Some interesting insights but overall not really worth it, some potential.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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8 January, 2009:
Finished reading
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8 January, 2009:
Reviewed