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The Love Department
Lady Dolores ran the offices of the Love Department, resolving the heartaches of the wives of Wimbledon. Now her protege was sent on a mission to learn the secrets of Septimus and to stop him in his tracks. Septimus was irresistible to women. Many had succumbed to his charm and more had died of it.
272 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1966
About the author
William Trevor
185 books781 followersWilliam Trevor, KBE grew up in various provincial towns and attended a number of schools, graduating from Trinity College, in Dublin, with a degree in history. He first exercised his artistry as a sculptor, working as a teacher in Northern Ireland and then emigrated to England in search of work when the school went bankrupt. He could have returned to Ireland once he became a successful writer, he said, "but by then I had become a wanderer, and one way and another, I just stayed in England ... I hated leaving Ireland. I was very bitter at the time. But, had it not happened, I think I might never have written at all."
In 1958 Trevor published his first novel, A Standard of Behaviour, to little critical success. Two years later, he abandoned sculpting completely, feeling his work had become too abstract, and found a job writing copy for a London advertising agency. 'This was absurd,' he said. 'They would give me four lines or so to write and four or five days to write it in. It was so boring. But they had given me this typewriter to work on, so I just started writing stories. I sometimes think all the people who were missing in my sculpture gushed out into the stories.' He published several short stories, then his second and third novels, which both won the Hawthornden Prize (established in 1919 by Alice Warrender and named after William Drummond of Hawthornden, the Hawthornden Prize is one of the UK's oldest literary awards). A number of other prizes followed, and Trevor began working full-time as a writer in 1965.
Since then, Trevor has published nearly 40 novels, short story collections, plays, and collections of nonfiction. He has won three Whitbread Awards, a PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. In 1977 Trevor was appointed an honorary (he holds Irish, not British, citizenship) Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to literature and in 2002 he was elevated to honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE). Since he began writing, William Trevor regularly spends half the year in Italy or Switzerland, often visiting Ireland in the other half. He lived in Devon, in South West England, on an old mill surrounded by 40 acres of land.
In 1958 Trevor published his first novel, A Standard of Behaviour, to little critical success. Two years later, he abandoned sculpting completely, feeling his work had become too abstract, and found a job writing copy for a London advertising agency. 'This was absurd,' he said. 'They would give me four lines or so to write and four or five days to write it in. It was so boring. But they had given me this typewriter to work on, so I just started writing stories. I sometimes think all the people who were missing in my sculpture gushed out into the stories.' He published several short stories, then his second and third novels, which both won the Hawthornden Prize (established in 1919 by Alice Warrender and named after William Drummond of Hawthornden, the Hawthornden Prize is one of the UK's oldest literary awards). A number of other prizes followed, and Trevor began working full-time as a writer in 1965.
Since then, Trevor has published nearly 40 novels, short story collections, plays, and collections of nonfiction. He has won three Whitbread Awards, a PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. In 1977 Trevor was appointed an honorary (he holds Irish, not British, citizenship) Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to literature and in 2002 he was elevated to honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE). Since he began writing, William Trevor regularly spends half the year in Italy or Switzerland, often visiting Ireland in the other half. He lived in Devon, in South West England, on an old mill surrounded by 40 acres of land.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
November 20, 2025
I’ve been reading a lot of early Trevor novels lately. This was his fourth novel, published in 1967, and it is almost like Trevor was still experimenting and finding his stride because it is unlike any other book of his I have read. It’s humorous -- essentially a farce -- and also a satire on the suburban lives of the well-to-do. We see bored women who are married to caring, correct husbands who are married to their jobs.
The main character is a young man who has some kind of social disability. He can’t take stress and in fact has been living in a monastery “retreat,” taking a break from life to calm his nerves. Even though he is in his 20’s he thinks of himself “I am still a child.”
He gets bored in his retreat and comes out to find a job. We are supposed to believe that he gets hired by Britain’s most popular “lovelorn columnist” who answers letters in the newspaper and gives advice to her female readers. She has received many letters from women in a London suburb about a Don Juan type guy named Septimus Tuan. He breaks up marriages. So she hires this ingenue as a kind of private detective to “go out and find him and stop him.” He grabs his bicycle and the farce begins.
It’s interesting, funny and, as I say, essentially a farce. It’s not highly rated on GR and like other GR readers I’m glad Trevor didn’t pursue this type of theme later in his career.
William Trevor is one of my favorite authors and I have read about 15 of his novels and collections of short stories. Below are links to reviews of some others of my favorite novels of his:
Mrs Eckdorf in O'Neill's Hotel
After Rain
The Hill Bachelors
Fools of Fortune
Nights at the Alexandra
The Children of Dynmouth
photo of the author from independent.ie
The main character is a young man who has some kind of social disability. He can’t take stress and in fact has been living in a monastery “retreat,” taking a break from life to calm his nerves. Even though he is in his 20’s he thinks of himself “I am still a child.”
He gets bored in his retreat and comes out to find a job. We are supposed to believe that he gets hired by Britain’s most popular “lovelorn columnist” who answers letters in the newspaper and gives advice to her female readers. She has received many letters from women in a London suburb about a Don Juan type guy named Septimus Tuan. He breaks up marriages. So she hires this ingenue as a kind of private detective to “go out and find him and stop him.” He grabs his bicycle and the farce begins.
It’s interesting, funny and, as I say, essentially a farce. It’s not highly rated on GR and like other GR readers I’m glad Trevor didn’t pursue this type of theme later in his career.
William Trevor is one of my favorite authors and I have read about 15 of his novels and collections of short stories. Below are links to reviews of some others of my favorite novels of his:
Mrs Eckdorf in O'Neill's Hotel
After Rain
The Hill Bachelors
Fools of Fortune
Nights at the Alexandra
The Children of Dynmouth
photo of the author from independent.ie
October 30, 2018
This early novel dates from 1966, and having read a few of Trevor's later novels I found it quite surprising. Trevor almost sums it up himself on the last page: "A farce in a vale of tears". As in later novels such as The Children of Dynmouth, Trevor seems most at home with odd characters, misfits and eccentrics.
The central characters are Edward, a naive, innocent young man who is given his first job by Dolores, a sort of agony aunt who believes marriages should be preserved at all costs, and the wonderfully named Septimus Tuam, a confidence trickster who preys on unhappily married middle aged women by pretending to fall in love with them. Dolores asks Edward to investigate Tuam, and the ensuing events take many farcical turns.
An enjoyable read but rather lighter and less substantial than anything else I have read by Trevor.
The central characters are Edward, a naive, innocent young man who is given his first job by Dolores, a sort of agony aunt who believes marriages should be preserved at all costs, and the wonderfully named Septimus Tuam, a confidence trickster who preys on unhappily married middle aged women by pretending to fall in love with them. Dolores asks Edward to investigate Tuam, and the ensuing events take many farcical turns.
An enjoyable read but rather lighter and less substantial than anything else I have read by Trevor.
May 23, 2025
38th book read in 2025
William Trevor, born Irish but became British, had a long and successful career writing novels and short stories, winning prizes all along. He wrote 15 novels; I have only read his first three, all published in the 1960s. I did not love any of them, but I did love his writing, his wit and his sympathetic portrayals of both men and women.
The Love Department is a satire on women’s magazines. I remember reading my mom’s: Woman’s Day, Redbook, Better Homes and Gardens. Then I grew up and read teen mags such as Seventeen. Each had its own section of advice on love and marriage. One of my favorite columns was “Can This Marriage Be Saved?”
The characters in this novel include Lady Dolores, head of the love department of such a mag, to whom women from across Wimbledon write letters pouring out their disappointments with husbands. She advises them but is being thwarted by a seductive conman, Septimus Tuam, whose amorous skills break up marriages while the wives help him financially.
Edward Blakeston-Smith is an insecure young fellow, socially challenged, who decides to leave the monastery where he has been hiding and get a “real job.” When he meets up with Dolores, he is given the task to hunt down Septimus and stop him.
Truly, it is one of the strangest tales I’ve read and more than a bit far-fetched, but seductive in its own way. The women who fall for Septimus are also quite the characters.
Each time I have read a William Trevor novel I have been won over enough to continue. He did it again this time
William Trevor, born Irish but became British, had a long and successful career writing novels and short stories, winning prizes all along. He wrote 15 novels; I have only read his first three, all published in the 1960s. I did not love any of them, but I did love his writing, his wit and his sympathetic portrayals of both men and women.
The Love Department is a satire on women’s magazines. I remember reading my mom’s: Woman’s Day, Redbook, Better Homes and Gardens. Then I grew up and read teen mags such as Seventeen. Each had its own section of advice on love and marriage. One of my favorite columns was “Can This Marriage Be Saved?”
The characters in this novel include Lady Dolores, head of the love department of such a mag, to whom women from across Wimbledon write letters pouring out their disappointments with husbands. She advises them but is being thwarted by a seductive conman, Septimus Tuam, whose amorous skills break up marriages while the wives help him financially.
Edward Blakeston-Smith is an insecure young fellow, socially challenged, who decides to leave the monastery where he has been hiding and get a “real job.” When he meets up with Dolores, he is given the task to hunt down Septimus and stop him.
Truly, it is one of the strangest tales I’ve read and more than a bit far-fetched, but seductive in its own way. The women who fall for Septimus are also quite the characters.
Each time I have read a William Trevor novel I have been won over enough to continue. He did it again this time
April 8, 2020
I’ve been on a bit of William Trevor kick over the past few years, starting with his early novels, The Boarding-House (1965) and The Old Boys (1964), both excellent; then moving on to his final novel, Love and Summer (2009), a book I absolutely adored. The Love Department (1966) is another of Trevor’s early works, and while I didn’t find it quite as satisfying as the others, there’s still a great deal to enjoy here.
Like its predecessors, The Love Department is something of an ensemble piece, set in England in the mid-1960s. The central character is Edward Blakeston-Smith, a rather innocent young man who has just left a monastic retreat after a period of recuperation for a nervous condition. In his eagerness to prove he is no longer a child, Edward applies for a job with the ‘love department’, a hugely popular agony aunt service run by a leading newspaper based in London. Heading up the service is Lady Dolores Bourhardie, an eccentric figure who believes in the preservation of love within marriage, largely irrespective of a woman’s dissatisfaction with her husband.
Following a brief yet unsuccessful trial in the love department office, Edward is enlisted to perform a special mission in the field. He is to track down Septimus Tuam, an infamous trickster who has been stirring up trouble in the suburbs of Wimbledon, preying on vulnerable ladies with the ultimate aim of tapping them up for money. In short, Edward must find this enemy of love, follow him as he goes about his business and report back in full to Lady Dolores, preferably with a comprehensive dossier of Tuam’s targets and movements. At first Edward is rather reluctant to take on this mission, preferring the relative safety of the office to life in the wild; however, needs must when the devil drives, so he sets off with the aim of finding his prey.
To read the rest of my review, please visit:
https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2020...
Like its predecessors, The Love Department is something of an ensemble piece, set in England in the mid-1960s. The central character is Edward Blakeston-Smith, a rather innocent young man who has just left a monastic retreat after a period of recuperation for a nervous condition. In his eagerness to prove he is no longer a child, Edward applies for a job with the ‘love department’, a hugely popular agony aunt service run by a leading newspaper based in London. Heading up the service is Lady Dolores Bourhardie, an eccentric figure who believes in the preservation of love within marriage, largely irrespective of a woman’s dissatisfaction with her husband.
Following a brief yet unsuccessful trial in the love department office, Edward is enlisted to perform a special mission in the field. He is to track down Septimus Tuam, an infamous trickster who has been stirring up trouble in the suburbs of Wimbledon, preying on vulnerable ladies with the ultimate aim of tapping them up for money. In short, Edward must find this enemy of love, follow him as he goes about his business and report back in full to Lady Dolores, preferably with a comprehensive dossier of Tuam’s targets and movements. At first Edward is rather reluctant to take on this mission, preferring the relative safety of the office to life in the wild; however, needs must when the devil drives, so he sets off with the aim of finding his prey.
To read the rest of my review, please visit:
https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2020...
November 16, 2019
I started to read William Trevor’s books in the late 1990s and consider him as one of my favorite authors. His fiction and short stories are equally good. I joined GoodReads about 2 months ago and wanted to start to build up my library/books read here, since I do enjoy reading. I have an ex-lib copy.
November 17, 2018
William Trevor meets Muriel Spark in this odd farce.
October 7, 2018
I read this book as part of my Mookse Madness 2019 project https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Published in 1955, it is definitely a product of its time with the subject of wealthy but unsatisfied married women who write letters to the eponymous magazine “love problems” column. Somewhat of a farce, the story follows a young man who becomes an assistant in the department and becomes involved with some of the letter-writing characters.
Published in 1955, it is definitely a product of its time with the subject of wealthy but unsatisfied married women who write letters to the eponymous magazine “love problems” column. Somewhat of a farce, the story follows a young man who becomes an assistant in the department and becomes involved with some of the letter-writing characters.
February 16, 2021
This is the third novel written by William Trevor, after "The Old Boys" that was excellent and "The Boarding House that was disappointing. "The Love Department" falls somewhere in between. I am working my way through his back catalogue. Typically, the book starts off with too much in the way of characters contemplating their life. Nothing much happens. "Mrs Hoop devoted much of her time to the consideration of two topics of thought".
One of the main characters Septimus Tuam - (where does Trevor find these names?) is described as "a gaunt young man with a face like the edge of a chisel and a mind that in some ways matched it". But it is Edward Blakestone-Smith that is central to the story, the most pathetic trainee private detective ever invented. However, the writer is always best with dialogue, some of the conversations have such a cutting tone.
When the book reaches half way, a very boring dinner party is suddenly pitched into farcical chaos. The book then becomes a much more interesting read as it gains huge momentum as Edward pursues his quest. I did like the mention of London Airport (the book was first published in 1966) and I can remember in that year driving my first car in the evening to one of the terminals or The Queens Building and parking right outside to have a coffee in a cafe there.
I have to agree with the review by W B Gooderham in The Guardian: "Admittedly "The Love Department" is not Trevor's finest work ...... the structure a little haphazard ...... 50 pages too long. But the story is engaging, the prose precise, the characters amusing ...... and eccentric charm." This was the reviewers nomination for a book out of print, having once not read anything by the author and picked up a second hand copy on a whim.
One of the main characters Septimus Tuam - (where does Trevor find these names?) is described as "a gaunt young man with a face like the edge of a chisel and a mind that in some ways matched it". But it is Edward Blakestone-Smith that is central to the story, the most pathetic trainee private detective ever invented. However, the writer is always best with dialogue, some of the conversations have such a cutting tone.
When the book reaches half way, a very boring dinner party is suddenly pitched into farcical chaos. The book then becomes a much more interesting read as it gains huge momentum as Edward pursues his quest. I did like the mention of London Airport (the book was first published in 1966) and I can remember in that year driving my first car in the evening to one of the terminals or The Queens Building and parking right outside to have a coffee in a cafe there.
I have to agree with the review by W B Gooderham in The Guardian: "Admittedly "The Love Department" is not Trevor's finest work ...... the structure a little haphazard ...... 50 pages too long. But the story is engaging, the prose precise, the characters amusing ...... and eccentric charm." This was the reviewers nomination for a book out of print, having once not read anything by the author and picked up a second hand copy on a whim.
December 30, 2015
Septimus Tuam is a rakish confidence trickster who preys on unhappy middle class housewives. He comes to the attention of a celebrated relationship columnist. who deputes a clueless aristocrat to track Septimus down and expose him. Hilarity ensues.
Very funny in places, matching the best of P. G. Wodehouse - for example. the dinner party with the pet monkey, the amorous Board member, the drunk parlor maid and her aggrieved suitor.
But on the whole, it seems as if Trevor is trying to decide what sort of writer he is going to be: juxtaposed to the picareque scenes of our hapless detective on his landlady's bicycle, we have the tragically sad anniversary dinner of the couple whose marriage is falling apart.
As a result, the novel while well-written and interesting, has less continuity of tone and mood. A fine read all the same.
Very funny in places, matching the best of P. G. Wodehouse - for example. the dinner party with the pet monkey, the amorous Board member, the drunk parlor maid and her aggrieved suitor.
But on the whole, it seems as if Trevor is trying to decide what sort of writer he is going to be: juxtaposed to the picareque scenes of our hapless detective on his landlady's bicycle, we have the tragically sad anniversary dinner of the couple whose marriage is falling apart.
As a result, the novel while well-written and interesting, has less continuity of tone and mood. A fine read all the same.
March 10, 2017
William Trevor was a remarkable story teller. I read two or three of his collections of short stories and found them to be both true and engaging. He had a gift for presenting a vivid slice of life in fifteen pages. Basing my opinion on The Love Department, the novel was not his domain for a reason. The book's characters and plot felt insubstantial to me; the novel moved along too slowly. He is an excellent writer, however, and I will return to his short stories.
March 30, 2013
This book was just odd. I never understood the main characters and why they did what they did. Why was Septimus Tuam (great name, by the way) intent on seducing women and why was Lady Dolores out to get him? It never made very much sense.
June 8, 2020
I absolutely adored the style of this book, the descriptions of its buildings and offices. However, I found the story somewhat hiccupy at times and wished there was more in the way of suspense. We know who the bad guys are, but it takes a while for the plot to truly develop.
June 16, 2017
Odd, whimsical, a fine read.
May 14, 2020
I've read this book twice. My favorite by William Trevor by far. It's a hoot.
October 16, 2018
The women who write to the love department are women whose marriage is troubled by the striking presence of a fellow called Septimus Tuam. That is why Edward is given the task of tracking down the man, who will then be dealt with by Lady Dolores, head of the department. A funny and poignant novel.
November 26, 2018
Lady Dolores Bourhardie believes in love, love within marriage that is, and runs an advice service for the many unhappily married women who write to her. It seems that many Wimbledon housewives have fallen for the charms of serial seducer Septimus Tuam, whose pick-up technique is to ladder their stockings and offer to buy them a new pair. She employs a naive young man who has been living in a monastic retreat (after some sort of nervous breakdown to do with advertising hoardings) to put a stop to this sort of thing.
Some of this book is very funny and some is just silly. The description likens it to the work of Evelyn Waugh and Muriel Spark, but much as I enjoy William Trevor's writing, I think either of them would have handled the story better; satirical farce is not Trevor's forte.
Some of this book is very funny and some is just silly. The description likens it to the work of Evelyn Waugh and Muriel Spark, but much as I enjoy William Trevor's writing, I think either of them would have handled the story better; satirical farce is not Trevor's forte.
October 9, 2025
a novel full of the most eccentric characters from 1950s England, but, then again, they might be perfectly normal. It also appears that most married women at the time were unsatisfied and terribly susceptible to seduction a man who hoovers and does the dishes.
December 18, 2025
Often this kind of book is described by reviewers as "hilarious". At least The Guardian only said it was "amusing", but as by chapter 3 I had neither laughed nor smiled, nor even been interested in the caricatured characters, nor wondered what was going to happen, nor cared, I gave up.
April 18, 2020
Nah. 2,5 stars rounded up because Trevor writes so well, but the story really was rather ridiculous. I'm not a big fan of farces, and that is exactly what this is.
After recuperating in a monastery after a rather obscure mental breakdown, Edward Blakestone-Smith decides to regain society and gets a job at the Love Department - where Lady Dolores is basically a sort of Agony Aunt and a strong defender of Marriage as an institution. EB-S' job is to hunt down the mysterious Septimus Tuam, destroyer of numerous marriages and basically a fraudster out for money.
'A farce in a vale of tears' is EB-S' last comment. I lamented the lack of an interesting and remotely credible storyline much more than I enjoyed the comic elements.
After recuperating in a monastery after a rather obscure mental breakdown, Edward Blakestone-Smith decides to regain society and gets a job at the Love Department - where Lady Dolores is basically a sort of Agony Aunt and a strong defender of Marriage as an institution. EB-S' job is to hunt down the mysterious Septimus Tuam, destroyer of numerous marriages and basically a fraudster out for money.
'A farce in a vale of tears' is EB-S' last comment. I lamented the lack of an interesting and remotely credible storyline much more than I enjoyed the comic elements.
July 15, 2023
SUMMARY - As Michael Caine was becoming Alfie, Trevor gives us the farcical flip side of the tale. Listening notes enclosed in the review ⬇️
____________________
I can recommend a musical pairing with The Kink's album 'Face to Face'. It was released the same year as Trevor's third (acknowledged) novel, and both are quirkily perceptive on Londoners' and sixties England's changing social mores.
In particular, the Kink's songs 'Dandy' and 'House in the Country' skewer the womaniser and careerist much as Trevor does. It was the same year as their more famous UK number one 'Sunny Afternoon' dealt with the entitled man in the country expecting the world to fall in his lap. Septimus Tuam the latter day Casnova (and as a subplot, Apprentice-in-waiting Lake) expect much the same, as they prey on the innocent lovers and workers of swinging sixties London town.
The standout feature of 'The Love Department ' is that it made undemonstrative me laugh fairly constantly on a busy connecting flight back from Madrid yesterday. The laughs come from the rudely ludicrous in true farce tradition (skirt-biting monkeys, heated debates about central heating, obviously pricking of pomposity of Cock-er-nee chars etc...). But having read some mirthless 'comic' novels, or greats whose jokes took some swallowing (Kingsley Amis in particular), Trevor delivered. On page 72, I laughed at least three times, and the fact I remember this perhaps shows how rare this is (the failing, to be fair, could be mine rather than the esteemed writers...)
The lead characters were overdrawn. Edward's cheeks were redder than apples, and Last Delores would have made Miriam Margoles look subtle. (I think of this because Margoles is my next read, and incidentally her career was just starting out at this point, with her first film role in 1969... but that's a story for another day). It is this alone that keeps me from delivering a full complement of stars to a novel that I am now glad to own.
Having now read Trevor's first four novels (plus 1983's wonderful 'Fools of Fortune') I am hugely impressed. From cursory Googling it seems Trevor is most often lauded for his short stories, but these novels carry a Regency verve full of impish humour and genuine human insight. I'd have loved a potter in the garden with him. These books are the next best thing.
____________________
I can recommend a musical pairing with The Kink's album 'Face to Face'. It was released the same year as Trevor's third (acknowledged) novel, and both are quirkily perceptive on Londoners' and sixties England's changing social mores.
In particular, the Kink's songs 'Dandy' and 'House in the Country' skewer the womaniser and careerist much as Trevor does. It was the same year as their more famous UK number one 'Sunny Afternoon' dealt with the entitled man in the country expecting the world to fall in his lap. Septimus Tuam the latter day Casnova (and as a subplot, Apprentice-in-waiting Lake) expect much the same, as they prey on the innocent lovers and workers of swinging sixties London town.
The standout feature of 'The Love Department ' is that it made undemonstrative me laugh fairly constantly on a busy connecting flight back from Madrid yesterday. The laughs come from the rudely ludicrous in true farce tradition (skirt-biting monkeys, heated debates about central heating, obviously pricking of pomposity of Cock-er-nee chars etc...). But having read some mirthless 'comic' novels, or greats whose jokes took some swallowing (Kingsley Amis in particular), Trevor delivered. On page 72, I laughed at least three times, and the fact I remember this perhaps shows how rare this is (the failing, to be fair, could be mine rather than the esteemed writers...)
The lead characters were overdrawn. Edward's cheeks were redder than apples, and Last Delores would have made Miriam Margoles look subtle. (I think of this because Margoles is my next read, and incidentally her career was just starting out at this point, with her first film role in 1969... but that's a story for another day). It is this alone that keeps me from delivering a full complement of stars to a novel that I am now glad to own.
Having now read Trevor's first four novels (plus 1983's wonderful 'Fools of Fortune') I am hugely impressed. From cursory Googling it seems Trevor is most often lauded for his short stories, but these novels carry a Regency verve full of impish humour and genuine human insight. I'd have loved a potter in the garden with him. These books are the next best thing.
March 23, 2017
Like Trevor's other early novels, this one is set in England, with English characters, and uses a continually shifting point of view. But unlike those enjoyable others, The Love Department suffers from having few sympathetic characters and almost no humor (other than a single, riotous dinner party scene). Had the focus been kept on Edward Blakeston-Smith (an over-privileged, hypersensitive youth horribly misemployed as a private detective) or Lady Dolores (an unmarried woman who worships marriage, a sort of Miss Havisham/Madame LaFarge hybrid who is both recluse and avenging angel), the book might have succeeded, but instead the focus shifts around among various unhappy couples in suburban London, none of whom are good enough people to deserve pity for the misery they endure. The book had its moments, but is the least satisfying Trevor I've read so far.
November 13, 2009
The description of the dinner party hosted by two of our protagonists for the members of the "Board" is among the funniest things I've ever read.
This is early Trevor, lovingly mocking the manners and mores of mid-century Britain, his adopted home. While not as dark as his more 'mature' work, there are the roots of many of the elements which he would develop further. And interesting comparison could be made between the young man of the "Love Department"—Edward—and the young man of Trevor's most recent novel (Love and Summer), Florian.
This is early Trevor, lovingly mocking the manners and mores of mid-century Britain, his adopted home. While not as dark as his more 'mature' work, there are the roots of many of the elements which he would develop further. And interesting comparison could be made between the young man of the "Love Department"—Edward—and the young man of Trevor's most recent novel (Love and Summer), Florian.
October 2, 2016
"But marriage isn't as easy at it looks." For sure. And that's where the love department comes in. Part advice column, part detective agency and part vigilante service. The conceit never really gels, despite some very fine moments and writing. Trevor turns martial problems and the inevitable affairs that result into farce here and merciless portrayal of human weaknesses there, with just a touch of empathy for all concerned.
He also gets off a good one on his fans and folks like this correspondent: "All you do us read the written word: what good is that for the sake of heaven?"
He also gets off a good one on his fans and folks like this correspondent: "All you do us read the written word: what good is that for the sake of heaven?"
May 30, 2014
A funny, satirical novel set in 1960's London. Septimus Tuan is a playboy who preys on bored, middle-aged, middle-class suburban housewives. The dinner-party scene is exceptionally funny, although the book is dated now.
March 30, 2008
Very funny and terrifically scary story by a master teller. The twist in the tail stays with me even now.
February 7, 2015
Much funnier than his later books, but with an odd tone of detachment.
August 9, 2015
Stepford Wives gone British. I was entertained.
November 6, 2015
Quirky but as all of Trevor, finely draw characters and well structured fiction.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews