This was a fascinating read. Mary S. Lovell succeeds in making history very readable. It is informative and was a pleasure to read. Lovell's style of writing makes me want to read more of her biographies. I felt like the following quote sums up much of what comes through in this account of one family.
"Children sometimes appear to believe that parents have an inbuilt guide to perfect parenting and that an inability to deliver what they want or need is a deliberate act of neglect. But parenting is a hit-and-miss affair, depending on many ingredients: the age of the parents, the relationship between them, the behavior of their own parents towards them and their reaction to it, and also the demeanour of the child. Parents, too, apparently often have an inbuilt confidence that their children, given the same upbringing they themselves received, will grow up with the same values and beliefs. But there is no magic formula to good parenting and parents get only one crack at it with each child. They cannot rehearse and go back, learning from past mistakes if they get it wrong. Invariably, too, children grow up with a ragbag of selective memories." p. 61
