Lettice & Victoria

This mischievous roman a clef revolves around the interactions of five main characters.

Victoria, barely twenty, finds herself acting as amanuensis to Laurence, an elderly man of letters, now blind, who lives in a ravishing house by the sea in northern Italy.

Soon after her arrival, she indulges in a heady night of passion with Edgar, a youthful Englishman.

Their subsequent union introduces Edgar's pretentious mother Lettice, who is jealous and suspicious of her daughter-in-law's prettiness and her ability to amuse Lettice's intellectual friends.

While Victoria struggles to adapt to her new surroundings, Lettice, in a bid to maintain her own social superiority, attempts to thwart her every move in hilarious fashion.

Enter Archie, one of the inner circle, whose relationship with Victoria provokes a scandal that threatens to destroy her.

Darkly funny and deeply insightful, Lettice & Victoria is not just a love story with a fanciful and flawed female protagonist, but a wonderful portrait of English society.