Kiss and Kin

by Angela Lambert

Oliver and his wife arrive to attend the birthday party of grandchild Hugo. Harriet is also on her way. Oliver and Harriet have been at odds since the wedding of their children. Harriet's son Roderick, a successful banker, is married to Jennifer, who works in publishing. Attempting to reconcile their careers, marriage and children leads the two generations to walk a dangerous line between fidelity and parenthood, each guarding secrets...

Genres: Fiction

Audio Cassette

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Angela Maria Lambert was a British journalist and author. She is best known for her novels A Rather English Marriage and Kiss and Kin, the latter of which won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award.

Reviews

[Roger Pettit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Angela Lambert, who died in 2007, was a television and print journalist in the UK. She wrote several novels, one of which was ‘Kiss and Kin’, which was published in 1997 and for which she was named romantic novelist of the year in 1998. ‘Kiss and Kin’ is more than just a romantic novel though. It’s an assured, emotionally intelligent and very readable tale about family tensions in which duty collides with desire.

The story is set in London (with occasional brief forays into southern France) during a week in late September 1995. The principal characters belong to two middle-class families, the Gaunts and the Capels. Relations between the two families have been strained since Clarissa Gaunt, who is married to Oliver, made derogatory remarks about Julian Capel at his brother Roderick’s wedding to her daughter Jennifer. When, some years after the wedding, Oliver (who lives with Clarissa in France) meets newly widowed Harriet Capel, the mother of Roderick and Julian, at a family gathering in London, they immediately fall for each other. As their clandestine love affair gathers pace over the course of a week, the consequences for them and their families become ever more intense as the couple grapple with the problems of coming clean to their nearest and dearest about their late-flowering passion and deciding whether they have a future together.

‘Kiss and Kin’, which I believe is out of print in the UK (I picked up my copy in a charity shop), addresses these issues persuasively and with verve. The characterisation is very good and Ms Lambert writes in a very readable style. The inter-generational tensions and the moral dilemmas depicted in the story are recognisable and very plausibly portrayed. This is a satisfying and compulsive novel that rings true throughout.

[Leonie Hinch · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most beautiful stories I've ever read. I know they say never judge a book by its cover but I will be honest when I picked this up in my grandmas house it looked like something I would probably find boring but I thought I would give it a go anyway as I'm always up for reading anything. Albeit it took a while for the story to take off but when it did it was wonderful.

If you read a lot you will know what I mean about a book being beautifully descriptive where you can taste the food and drink and smell the leaves on the ground because the description is literally that good. That's the sort of book this is. Its not admittedly the type of thing I've read before old aged pensioners falling in love and having sex I'm 22! It's not something I like to think about but this was truly magical. The love and passion combined with the aching bones, swollen lips, old fashioned attitudes and swelled old stomachs was made to be beautiful rather than make you say eurgh!

The little stories interwoven into it also brought delight from office affairs to self obsessed wives, old men's 'clubs' young people that are too busy for relationships, tired over worked au pairs and children with stutters, gay relationships that are working out far better than their hetro counterparts and amongst it all this beautiful love affair of two elderly people in their mid to late 60s.

It's a shame the ending is so sad although I understand that it adds to the beauty of it you knew they could never be together deep down as much as you wanted it almost as much as they did. Stunning

[Duaa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such an amazing novel about love , it shows that there is no specific age for love & u can meet your true love at any place , at any time and the most important at any age . (( the end made me cry , it was so touching )) .

[CHRISTINE MACLEOD · Rating 3 out of 5]

Angela Lambert used to be one of my favourite authors back in the day, (No Talking After Lights), so when I found 2 of her titles , in a charity shop, which I had not read I looked forward to rekindling the old magic. While I still enjoy her style of writing etc I found this story rather dated.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great author....perceptive judge of character. I think my American friends would enjoy this insight into British Upper Class life.

[Vivienne · Rating 3 out of 5]

this had been on my bookshelf for avery long time so glad I got round to reading it. proves love can get you at any age did not expect it to end as it did

[Norah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two generations walk a dangerous tightrope between fidelity and parenthood, each guarding past and present secrets, the revelation of which, in the heat of passion, may destroy the carefully erected boundaries of tradition and propriety. A hoghly readable tale about love and loss. Duty and desire.

[Lie · Rating 4 out of 5]

laatste liefde .... uitgeverij fortuna

[Fiona Lowe]

I think I only "read" this because it was an audio book and I was busy scanning photos.

[Dzsmith · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had quite a predictable storyline. The dialogue was very stilted and this made it difficult (for me) to engage with the characters.