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The Family
Jill expected to live happily ever after with her husband. She believed that if she worked hard enough, no one need know of the problems that lurked beneath the surface. But, when disaster strikes, Jill is catapulted alone into a new life and faces the millennium a changed and tougher woman.
- GenresFiction
Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
2 people are currently reading
40 people want to read
About the author
Anita Burgh
54 books27 followersAnita Burgh was born in Kent. She began to write in her late forties and was first published at the age of 50. She has subsequently had 23 novels published, numerous articles and short stories. Her themes are those of class, rejection and wealth. She writes books set in the modern world but also historical novels set in Victorian and Edwardian times – her latest being The Cresswell Inheritance trilogy. She has been a member of the RNA for many years, was a committee member and has been short-listed for the RNA Romantic Novel of the Year award. Now in her 70s, she enjoys teaching and mentoring others who are, as yet, unpublished. She continues to write novels, proving that authors never retire.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 12, 2015
I will admit, I often had a hard time putting this book down. I'd give it a 2.5 or even a 2.75 if Goodreads would let me.
February 17, 2025
This epic family saga begins in Norfolk in 1966, when beautiful eighteen year old Jillian Sinclair, a girl from modest means meets handsome university student Jack Stirling from a wealthy family, at the May Ball. As their eyes meet, they make an immediate connection and soon become lovers. Readers can easily predict much that follows: a wealthy family rejects their son’s lover, an unplanned pregnancy throws the gentry into chaos, abortion is proposed and rejected, a quickly planned marriage takes place and a son’s allowance is immediately cut off, his school fees vanish and his father disinherits him. Forced to survive on what meager funds they have, the couple begin their married life in two small rooms, Jack begins work remodeling houses and they eke out a living, gradually gaining a firmer foothold on their finances and later add a second child to their family.
Things go well as Jack develops a career as an estate developer but things come crashing down when he pushes his investments too aggressively just as an economic downturn begins and the family is threatened with bankruptcy. This is just one of the many challenges this family will face over the coming decades, told over the next several hundred pages. At times, it feels like a long-drawn-out day time soap opera with chaos and calamity at every turn. Readers cannot help but be curious about what other dramatic, sad and chaotic events can befall them, as one crisis is resolved, while another bubbles on the horizon waiting to happen.
The narrative includes a richly drawn cast of characters, including close and extended members from both Jillian and Jack’s families. There is also a wide array of various wives, husbands, boyfriends and girlfriends and a few scattered friends, all making a large cast for the reader to track. Some are loving and supportive, some are bitchy, boring and mean spirited, and some are sly and secretive. However, the main focus is on Jillian and Jack who age as the story progresses until it comes to a close when they are in their fifties.
Jillian begins as a young woman certain all she wants in life is a family and a happy marriage. She always puts aside her own needs for others and at times is so self-effacing readers may want to shake her. It is only later she begins to want a fuller life and something more than a man in her bed. Jack begins as a selfish self-centered young man who spends all his energy to spite his father. He grows to enjoy money more than his family and will do whatever it takes to amass the fortune he has always wanted, a man who never grows outside his own greedy needs.
As the narrative continues, it explores a wide range of subjects. Set against the background of the sixties with its social, cultural and political changes, it tackles serious subjects including the emerging sexual freedoms, the evolving role of women in the home and workplace, domestic and sexual abuse and the increasing use of hallucinogenic drugs. Readers may smile at the small quirky details Burg uses in her narrative to give it that sixties feel, everything from colorfully painted travel vans, references to communes, tarot cards and crystals and the descriptions of the fashions, the long skirts, embroidered waistcoats, tie-dye shirts, colorful beads and references to the music of the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Buddy Holly and trips to India.
At over 450 pages, this is a big doorstopper of a book that brings readers into Jillian and Jack’s story, as a couple and as individuals. Over that time, hundreds of cigarettes are smoked, many bottles of whiskey are downed and endless cups of tea, the panacea for all ills, is consumed. Burg must be given kudos for maintaining the pace and keeping her readers engaged given the length of the book which finally comes to a close in the year 2000.
It was an enjoyable read.
Things go well as Jack develops a career as an estate developer but things come crashing down when he pushes his investments too aggressively just as an economic downturn begins and the family is threatened with bankruptcy. This is just one of the many challenges this family will face over the coming decades, told over the next several hundred pages. At times, it feels like a long-drawn-out day time soap opera with chaos and calamity at every turn. Readers cannot help but be curious about what other dramatic, sad and chaotic events can befall them, as one crisis is resolved, while another bubbles on the horizon waiting to happen.
The narrative includes a richly drawn cast of characters, including close and extended members from both Jillian and Jack’s families. There is also a wide array of various wives, husbands, boyfriends and girlfriends and a few scattered friends, all making a large cast for the reader to track. Some are loving and supportive, some are bitchy, boring and mean spirited, and some are sly and secretive. However, the main focus is on Jillian and Jack who age as the story progresses until it comes to a close when they are in their fifties.
Jillian begins as a young woman certain all she wants in life is a family and a happy marriage. She always puts aside her own needs for others and at times is so self-effacing readers may want to shake her. It is only later she begins to want a fuller life and something more than a man in her bed. Jack begins as a selfish self-centered young man who spends all his energy to spite his father. He grows to enjoy money more than his family and will do whatever it takes to amass the fortune he has always wanted, a man who never grows outside his own greedy needs.
As the narrative continues, it explores a wide range of subjects. Set against the background of the sixties with its social, cultural and political changes, it tackles serious subjects including the emerging sexual freedoms, the evolving role of women in the home and workplace, domestic and sexual abuse and the increasing use of hallucinogenic drugs. Readers may smile at the small quirky details Burg uses in her narrative to give it that sixties feel, everything from colorfully painted travel vans, references to communes, tarot cards and crystals and the descriptions of the fashions, the long skirts, embroidered waistcoats, tie-dye shirts, colorful beads and references to the music of the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Buddy Holly and trips to India.
At over 450 pages, this is a big doorstopper of a book that brings readers into Jillian and Jack’s story, as a couple and as individuals. Over that time, hundreds of cigarettes are smoked, many bottles of whiskey are downed and endless cups of tea, the panacea for all ills, is consumed. Burg must be given kudos for maintaining the pace and keeping her readers engaged given the length of the book which finally comes to a close in the year 2000.
It was an enjoyable read.
August 13, 2020
Oh my God, reading this book was a journey. Its like I have lived a life, life of Jillian Stirling.
I am awarding the whole load of stars to this book because it was worth every word written and read. Jillian is like any other girl with hopes of a great yet simple life, a model woman of the 20th century, always knowing her exact place and saying, doing exactly what can be expected of her. As her life progresses you can feel the transition the era itself was rolling in. With the technology improving and various gadgets along with the wiring of thinking of the people and obviously the role and status of women in the society. Jillian started as a normal giggling teenager who has to leave her home because of the estranged father and then she becomes a wife and mother and devotes herself to them, to please them , to look after them, just like any other woman of that time and it is shown in the novel that how model everyone considered her as it was the thinking of that time that women are expected to properly dot and look after her family. There can be many diverse characters through which the writer has tried to show how some women were breaking free from the age old expectations and was getting divorced, roaming around the country like a hippie or simply by leaving a long marriage, in the form of Michelle, Patsy and obviously Esme.
It is a must read, I must say, grab your copy without having any second thoughts if you are into women's fiction. Happy Reading!!
I am awarding the whole load of stars to this book because it was worth every word written and read. Jillian is like any other girl with hopes of a great yet simple life, a model woman of the 20th century, always knowing her exact place and saying, doing exactly what can be expected of her. As her life progresses you can feel the transition the era itself was rolling in. With the technology improving and various gadgets along with the wiring of thinking of the people and obviously the role and status of women in the society. Jillian started as a normal giggling teenager who has to leave her home because of the estranged father and then she becomes a wife and mother and devotes herself to them, to please them , to look after them, just like any other woman of that time and it is shown in the novel that how model everyone considered her as it was the thinking of that time that women are expected to properly dot and look after her family. There can be many diverse characters through which the writer has tried to show how some women were breaking free from the age old expectations and was getting divorced, roaming around the country like a hippie or simply by leaving a long marriage, in the form of Michelle, Patsy and obviously Esme.
It is a must read, I must say, grab your copy without having any second thoughts if you are into women's fiction. Happy Reading!!
December 4, 2018
Hooked from the start. We start pur journey with Jillian in the 1960s.... and its a very 1960s setting too, Anita depicts the 60s very well from my perspective. The first two chapeters are so funny with Jillian and her sister Patsy with regards to making fun of their strict Christian dad.
The book is funny, gripping and takes you on a journey not only through Jillian's and her family's turbulant life but through three decades from the 1960s through to the dawn of 2000 with an unexpected but not unpleasant ending.
The book is funny, gripping and takes you on a journey not only through Jillian's and her family's turbulant life but through three decades from the 1960s through to the dawn of 2000 with an unexpected but not unpleasant ending.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 19, 2021
Elasin Jillianile kaasa kogu tema teekonna vältel. Tundsin talle kaasa kui ämm teda põlgas ja hiljem minia samasuguseks osutus. Kuidas elu tema ümber laiali kippus valguma ja kuidas ta seda ikka ja jälle kokku lappis. Väga nautisin seda raamatut.
January 1, 2016
Started off fairly 'ordinary' but really got into the story as it developed. Some interesting characters and a lot that you just wanted to punch!! Really wanted it all to come good for Jillian - she had a rough time.
June 26, 2015
A quick read with enough of life's challenging situations to keep it interesting. First time I read this author but would read others of hers.
August 3, 2021
I struggled with the beginning - it was a really slow start. I ended up quite enjoying the middle to nearing the end. And then was just terribly disappointed in the ending.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews