First published 1981, this is Dirk Bogarde's second novel. The fabulous but wavering old Lady “Cuckoo” Peverill, lives with her husband, Napoleon-mad military historian, Archie. Dissatisfied and overcome by sheer boredom, she ventures down to the lake at the edge of their estate, pockets filled with stones...
"When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood." So begins the luminous memoir of Frank McCourt, born in Depression-era Brooklyn to recent Irish immigrants and...