"A fun historical read with a very colorful characters..."
Miss Georgiana Halliday is a young woman of moderate
means who is firmly on the shelf, meaning no longer looking
for marriage, but that doesn't bother her. She has her
small home in Brighton, a cousin Agatha who loves to run a
household, an elderly butler named Tipple, and Janie a maid-
of-all-work. Oh, and a dog, Lump, which is short for
Galumphus, who is large, ill-behaved, and possessing long
hair that looks like it might have been dumped into a
variety of paint-pots. She is lamenting over a letter she's
received from an old friend, Marigold, when she runs into
Lord Garth Warwick during an early morning stroll on the
beach. While she's always been secretly fond of her now
missing cousin's husband, she finds it very agreeable when
out of the blue Garth kisses her, saying he's always wanted
to know if he would enjoy that. He did, she did...only Lump
was bored by it. By now you should have figured out that this is a very
funny book about many, many characters, all of who have
their own say at one time or another, including the dog. In
addition to the household staff, there is Andrew, Georgie's
brother, who is back from the Napoleon wars and suffering
from the horrors he can't help remembering. He meets Sarah-
Louise a very young woman who he affectionately describes
as an amiable giraffe because she is both freckled and very
tall. She's being courted by a fortune hunter, who quotes
other people's poetry and needs her father's money to pay
his tailoring bills. The biggest problem in Georgie's life is Marigold, a
former member of the upper crust who was cut off after
running away with a man named Leo who subsequently
disappeared. After a stint as an actress, she married an
older man who died leaving her penniless. She's now hiding
in Georgie's home, on the run from his son, Carlisle who
has come home from India to find that she'd left with an
family emerald which she no longer has. The twists and
turns of this book are everywhere, but suffice it to say
that by the end everyone's happy, even the dog, Lump.
Reviewed by Janet Miller
Posted April 1, 2004
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