PEACOCKS ON THE LAWN

A leisurely continuity of past and present as Bunmeara, a house in Ireland which had once had peacocks on the lawn, is now an overnight lodging for Harmer, an Englishman, who comes there for a convalescent cure. And while the erosion of the years has destroyed much of the grandeur and the passion of the lives within these walls- the vestiges remain- and Harmer is attracted by the memories which local gossip still animate. He reconstructs the lives of Lady Sherry Thomson, who had married for love but didn't find it- in Alec; of Tommy Yerrow, her childhood friend who remained faithful to her through the years; of crude, cruel Micky John Donnelly, who seduced her once and left her with the child, Kate, whom his wife was to adopt and with whom Harmer now falls in love. And the old obligations from the past intrude on the romance here until Micky John, crazed and uncontrollable, severs the last lien and frees Kate for a new life with Harmer.... A curious and cumulative narrative in which revelation is to dim the lustre of legend- this handles its unhappy history with assurance and ability.