Cheng, Sui Sun
Meriel, Lucy, Lavinia and May, the daughters of George, fourth Lord Lyttleton, are the Victorian girls of the title. Their love of home - Hagley Hall - and of their parents and eight brothers is what gives an admirable unity to this vivid picture of an aristocratic Victorian family. Through letters and diaries we have a clear idea of their social lives and of the domestic responsibilities that each undertook in turn after the death of their beloved mother. Lord Lyttleton, renowned for his part in furthering women's education, believed that 'ignorance was bliss' for his own daughters. (It is a measure of their affection for him that they teased him, but did not resent it.) William Gladstone was their uncle, and politics was in the air, but not an immediate concern until Lucy's husband, Lord Fredrick Cavendish, was murdered in Dublin in 1882. Sheila Fletcher's portrait of a pious but spirited family involves the reader in the fate of each of its members. (Kirkus UK)