DANCE WITH ME by VICTORIA CLAYTON

DANCE WITH ME

BY VICTORIA CLAYTON

THE BLURB:-

Viola Otway, young, romantic and with little formal schooling, has been sent out into the world by her guardian to earn her living. But her lack of education and experience are no disadvantage for her job at the Society for the Conservation of Ancient Buildings, otherwise known as SCAB.

Viola and her boss are sent to access Inskip Park, a huge house with an incredible facade and domes like Brighton Pavilion. The roof leaks, the walls drip with damp, the food is terrible and the servants distinctly odd- but Viola is enchanted. She loves everything about the house, the garden, and the peculiarly eccentric Inskip family- particularly Jeremy, the handsome, lazy and utterly charming son and heir.

Five days later, Viola returns to London having made some life-changing decisions. Even an unexpected marriage proposal fails to deflect her from her declared purpose: to acquire an education...

THE REALITY:-

An utterly charming upper-class comedy romp, which is tailor made for fans of Four Weddings And A Funeral. Although it's not that easy to work out which era this novel is set in, somewhere in the middle it states that these events take place during the unbelievably hot summer of 1976. Other reviews have stated that they cannot work out out heroine Viola's age- it mentions quite clearly that she is nearly twenty-one just a short way into the novel.

I took a long time to read this book. That's not because it was boring, but simply because I seem to have had so much going on in my life in the past few months; from a holiday, to trying to sort out builders and repair dates for my ruined cellar stairs, to job problems (i.e. the one I have is not exactly up to scratch and the company itself is not my cup of tea.)  But when I did pick it up properly it was thoroughly engaging and clearly written by someone who knows their stuff where art is concerned. It's always good to learn something new from a novel. The author also has an excellent grasp on the English language and I managed to learn a few new words (no, not swear words!) and also saw a few seldom used words creep in, which is great for descriptives.

Nothing was totally predictable about this work (apart from, maybe, who Viola ended up romantically ensconced with) and the characters were certainly colourful with some great and often hilarious traits. Inskip Park was brilliantly depicted and certainly made for a gripping base to the story and I especially found Lady Inskip's story moving and loved her youngest son, Nicky.

With superbly interesting, flawed, and often clumsy characters you can really feel for (including a villain who has seemingly played a hand in corrupting almost everyone at Inskip Park) and laugh-out-loud word play, juxtaposed with a comic take on the lives of the aristocracy, I would certainly recommend this light-hearted book as a summer read (even though I read it as the nights pulled in!)