As a big fan of the 90s BBC adaptation of
Jeeves and Wooster, I found this novel fucking creepy, and I fucking loved it. It's like a very very twisted
Jeeves and Wooster; a butler in an 'old country house' in the 1950s recalls the last gasps of power of the landed English nobility in the interwar years, trying to shut his eyes to his former employer's atrocious manners, attitudes and racism. Brilliant, sustained style, wonderful characterisation, heartrendingly intense emotionally under an implacable veneer, staggering under the burden of class division. Vividly portrays the breakdown not only of a way of life, but a whole system of values and way of thinking. I don't think any other novel has ever made me understand so intensely just how much English society changed at the beginning of the twentieth century. Wonderful interweaving of history and personal drama as well. Just an amazing book.
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