ANY TWO CAN PLAY

by Elizabeth Cadell ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 9, 1981

Romance, Cadell-style: chatty, domestic, and set, as usual, in a pleasantly gossipy English village. Natalie Travers, 27, comes down from Brighton to the village of Downing to tend the twin babies of brother Julian--whose wife, having ""experienced"" wife and motherhood, found it all wanting and tootled off. And in no time Julian, music director of Downing's famous private school, manages to go off whistling, having shifted all burdens of house and family onto poor Natalie. Meanwhile, however, Henry Downing (of the town's founding family) returns to the ancestral acres from Italy--where his deceased father had married an Italian wife--and is trying to decide whether or not to sell the grand Downing House. (His three aunts--two potty, one with a mysteriously absent husband--are eager to move out.) So, while Natalie copes with ""the help""--like that hearty babysitter who ingests food like a vacuum cleaner--and various applicants for housekeeper/ nanny, the romance with Henry goes on apace. There are quips, a few quibbles, and, quite soon, the inevitable happy ending: Henry and Natalie plan to marry, with a ready-made family of two young boys (one a homeless African student) and the twins. . . whom they plan to adopt. Weak tea but warming.

Pub Date: June 9, 1981

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Morrow

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1981

Categories: FICTION