The Stepmother's Diary by Fay Weldon

Sappho seemed to have everything. She had recently married Gavin Garner, the widowed husband of playwright and muse Isolde Garner. Sappho had been the au pair for the family almost until Isolde's death but in the intervening years she'd become a successful playwright herself. She had wealth and a beautiful home and with her marriage to Gavin her life seemed complete. She had something else too.

She had two step-children. Gavin had a son and a daughter whom Sappho had known as toddlers. They were rather older now but Sappho thought that she would be able to build a relationship with them. Arthur, cheerful and happy-go-lucky, seemed unlikely to pose a problem and Isobel had been so young when her mother died that Sappho didn't think that there would be any difficulties. She was a delightful girl and her father doted on her. Sappho's mother, Emily, was a psychoanalyst and despite being prone to over analysing everything that her daughter did, reacted with shock and dismay on the day when Sappho, pregnant and dishevelled, thrust a carrier bag of papers into her mother's hands, explained that they were her diaries and instructed her mother to keep them safe, but not to read them.

Of course she did.

I am a mother and have my daughter's best interests at heart. In a Waitrose bag too, and therefore homely yet aspirational. A Tesco's bag would somehow have diminished the contents.

And there you have, in three sentences, the perfect example of Weldon's genius as a writer. There's the elegant, understated wit, the sparse use of language and in thirty one words we have the essential Emily. It's not just down to the technical brilliance of the writing either – the ear for dialogue is faultless, whatever the age or sex and the characters come off the page so well-formed that you're surprised not to find them in the room with you.

That's all very well, but what of the story? It always used to be that when a father remarried it was his daughter would be the one who would have her nose pushed out. But what happens when it is the child who sets out to reclaim her father at any cost? I've a minor quibble about the part played by some contraceptive pills, but apart from that the story had me gripped from beginning to end. The theme of a modern woman caught in a difficult situation brought about by male dominance – or weakness – is hardly new to Weldon, but, as ever, she handles it superbly. Highly recommended.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to The Bookbag.

If this book appeals to you then I think you might enjoy another favourite of mine, despite the fact that the styles are very different – A Dance in Time by Orna Ross.

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