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this_fishy_reads 's review for:
The Bolter: Edwardian Heartbreak and High Society Scandal in Kenya
by Frances Osborne
For 300 pages I was under the impression that this was a badly written biography of of Idina Sackville. Idina doesn't seem to have kept a diary during her life, and not many people seem to have kept her letters. That is why Frances Osborne spends so much time talking about Idina's husbands' affairs and remarriages and children, rather than Idina herself. That is why each of Idina's remarriages are sudden, without any introduction to her newest husband or explanation of how they met. That is why the inspiration for James Bond is gone over, and also The Ritz's plumbing arrangements during World War I. Despite Idina being Osborne's great grandmother, she just didn't know anything about her relative.
Except, in the last two pages, it finally became clear that this book was never about Idina. It's about her family. It's for her family. And while that doesn't excuse the time spent describing old-timey showers, it does make this a markedly different book, one that I never would have had any interest in.
Except, in the last two pages, it finally became clear that this book was never about Idina. It's about her family. It's for her family. And while that doesn't excuse the time spent describing old-timey showers, it does make this a markedly different book, one that I never would have had any interest in.