A Dubious Legacy

by Mary Wesley

Couples, both married and unmarried, collide at a country house during a weekend of sex, adventure, and shocking surprises In 1944, with Britain still embroiled in World War II, Henry Tillotson marries a mysterious woman in desperate need of a passport. On their wedding night, she gives her new husband a black eye and falls ill. Is Margaret mad? Or is something else driving her-something from her shadowy past? The arrival of two more couples at the Tillotson estate sets in motion a series of events that will impact all their lives-for better or for worse. In Margaret Tillotson, Mary Wesley has created one of her most wickedly creative-and unforgettable-characters. A Dubious Legacy is an irresistible page-turner of a book about love and marriage, legacies, secrets, and revenge.

Genres: Fiction, British Literature, 20th Century, Audiobook, Novels, Contemporary, Literature

389 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Mary Wesley, CBE was an English novelist. She reportedly worked in MI5 during World War II. During her career, she became one of Britain's most successful novelists, selling three million copies of her books, including 10 best-sellers in the last 20 years of her life.

She wrote three children's books, Speaking Terms and The Sixth Seal (both 1969) and Haphazard House (1983), before publishing adult fiction. Since her first adult novel was published only in 1983, when she was 71, she may be regarded as a late bloomer. The publication of Jumping the Queue in 1983 was the beginning of an intensely creative period of Wesley's life. From 1982 to 1991, she wrote and delivered seven novels. While she aged from 70 to 79 she still showed the focus and drive of a young person.
Her best known book, The Camomile Lawn, set on the Roseland Peninsula in Cornwall, was turned into a television series, and is an account of the intertwining lives of three families in rural England during World War II. After The Camomile Lawn (1984) came Harnessing Peacocks (1985 and as TV film in 1992), The Vacillations of Poppy Carew (1986 and filmed in 1995), Not That Sort of Girl (1987), Second Fiddle (1988), A Sensible Life (1990), A Dubious Legacy (1993), An Imaginative Experience (1994) and Part of the Furniture (1997). A book about the West Country with photographer Kim Sayer, Part of the Scenery, was published in 2001. Asked why she had stopped writing fiction at the age of 84, she replied: "If you haven't got anything to say, don't say it.

From Mary Wesley

Reviews

[Elizabeth Licata · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mary Wesley is another of those subtle and perverse British writers who find the drama and dysfunction in small middle class communities. Her characters are passionate and often thwarted, but it all plays out in an elegant and understated manner.

[Mirren Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Typical Mary Wesley: acerbic, sparse, pacey storyline. This one centred around a troublesome wife Margaret, who lives most her life in bed; her long-suffering husband Henry, who has a web of secrets - and a growing number of secrets as the book unfolds, and a group of friends and neighbours who are regular house-guests at his country estate. A novel full of humour, eccentric characters from the English middle classes, sex and, oft-times, rather odd behaviours. Would people really have said what they said, when they said it? Maybe, maybe not, and let's not forget the cockatoo either! But never mind, she was one of a kind and such original writing behoves reading. Good holiday entertainment. (Jones)

[Eleanor · Rating 1 out of 5]

A really strange book - great gaps in the plot, a lot of false leads and characters that drifted in and out. Scenes that did not resonate with the structure (is there one?) of the narrative. I've never been a fan of Mary Wesley and I'm afraid I never will be at this rate. A very poor book indeed.

[Iulia Lupa Bernal · Rating 5 out of 5]

A funny and sad story

[Andréa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed by this lukewarm attempt at clinging to the glories of The Camomile Lawn. Reviving some of its best characters did not guarantee success. Although Henry is an amiable creation, his antics around his dubious marriage to Margaret make this a slow and at times arduous read. We do not ultimately care about most of the peripheral characters and, as time goes by, their brood. Mary Wesley wrote with great panache, but I did wonder throughout whether she might have lost some of her flair towards the end of her life. She only started writing in her late sixties, so this, her penultimate novel or thereabouts, must have been written when other authors take a well-deserved rest. It might have been advisable to follow suit.

[M Rijks · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first third was especially unpredictable and exciting, but around halfway through it lost this sense of mystery. Still, a good summer book that was very enjoyably weird.

[Millie Webb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Margaret was intriguing. Reminded me of a Bertha in the attic/the yellow wallpaper situation but justified by the fact she was ‘rescued’ by Henry. Liked the subtly at showing the imperfections behind middle class respectability. Enjoyed the comedy but other parts were a bit naff, I didn’t care much about the children. Shocked by the number of affairs.

[Rosetta Whyte · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to Anna Massey read this book on BorrowBox library app. Just brilliant

[Mauro Aragón · Rating 2 out of 5]

Aside from the typo I found and the numerous punctuation errors, my main problem with this book was that the author dragged too many characters into it. And some of them seemed interchangeable and so I couldn't keep them straight. Mainly, the two young couples: Barbara & James and Antonia & Matthew.

I know it's bad and dumb, but I couldn't keep them straight. They were all so similar and boring and stereotypical that they didn't stand out. Not one had an interesting character flaw that made them stand out and then (spoiler alert)... when they all did the same things, it was additionally boring and convoluted.

So we are to believe that two young women, best friends, get asked by their boyfriends, who are also very good friends, to drive out to a country farm where (surprise!) they BOTH get engaged on pretty much the same night?

And not only that: (spoiler alert) They end up marrying these lunkheads, complaining about them, and immediately both getting pregnant by them and -- SURPRISE -- then, they're ALL back at the farm during a visit and BOTH women go into labor at the same time! And they get beds in the hospital side by side?? It's ludicrous and stupid.

I admit, there are the few moments that are slightly interesting and funny, but overall, it's pretty unbelievable in a big way. I know it's just a story, but it seems like the author just slapped together all of the witty and bitchy things she'd ever heard people say and threw everything in a pot and wrote a book.

I will give her this: I DID want to know what the hell happens at the end and so I read the entire thing. I am not sure I would recommend this book to anyone but it is an easy read (except for trying to remember which young couple are arguing). I really struggled to keep them apart and mostly plowed through the book (not caring) just so that I could finish the damned thing. Yes, I said it. (Sigh).

[James Askari · Rating 3 out of 5]

A country-house farce or comedy or tragicomedy--with Shakespearean comedy undertones and a possible influence on Barbara Trapido.

From one angle, it's preoccupied, to an eyewatering and barely credible degree, with the sex lives and life-choices (as dependent on the sex-lives) or two young nineteen-year-old women, well-educated, well-regulated, rich, not wanting to work, wanting better home lives than their mothers. Antonia and Barbara are intelligently level-headed, while their fiances are limited, flawed (one is in love with his sexually liberated ex), comparatively featureless. From another angle, Wesley's 'romance' is a character study of a good-hearted man, Henry, a farmer and lord of a decaying West Country manor, about thirty-five when the action starts and darkly handsome. Henry has made a strange forced marriage, at his dying father's bequest, to a damaged eccentric, Margaret, whose previous alliance to a German in wartime Egypt left her with few options for safety. Margaret (possibly) resents Henry's largess, retiring to her bed the moment she is carried (or dragged?) over the threshold of Cottesloe.

The novel turns on Henry's magnanimity, as well as his peccadilloes, expressing themselves in his fatherhood--something Margaret, who does not sleep with him, vows she will frustrate. But this feature of the story is more implicit than one might expect. Henry, in the most estimable spirit of tolerance and humanity, only wants to please his wife--buying her gifts in London, where he visits his lovers or else 'call girls'. When he brings her perfume, she douses the two dogs with it. When his gift is a cockatoo ... well, this is the tragicomic and fairly weighty business of the novel's big set-piece.

[Ladyce West · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my introduction to Mary Wesley. I liked this book very much and I intend to read Wesley's other books. A Dubious Legacy kept my interest, my attention and was responsible for the discreet smile I presented throughout its reading. For, indeed, the doings of three couples through several decades in mid 20th century -- the subject under scrutiny in this comedy of manners -- was portrayed with humorous detachment and unwavering perspicacity. Ms Wesley is very good at placing her characters within the axioms of each decade's mores and develops insightful cameos of each era's preoccupations.

This is a short novel, a succinct book, developed in a fast tempo, keeping all along a mystery we hope to unveil. The central characters look at first as banal as they can be, but soon we realize appearances are misleading. These six upper middle class friends in the English country side are the source of great social commentary made by an ironic and warm narrator, a painter as it were, using few incisive strokes. The result is great fun and speedy reading, a book which I would recommend to anyone wishing to be intrigued and entertained.

[Sarah Hills · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a real conundrum. I have just read the last four or five reviews and none of them seem to have understood this book at all. Basically it is the life and time of Henry Tillotson.
Beautifully written in an old fashioned way and certainly not the kind of book I would normally read.
There is so much going on in the book but it is of Henry that you end up thinking about.
His legacy with children we are left thinking that he has fathered and in the end his passing was terribly sad.
This book really is of the old fashioned style but I surprisingly loved the whole thing. In fact I have read it in one day today.
I have another of this authors books that I shall dig out and see if I enjoy it as much.
I can imagine in today's fast paced world this book may not appeal, no sex or drugs (or rock and roll for that fact) but it has so many interesting characters.
I was bamboozled by his wife Margaret and must admit never really worked her out fully.
I feel sad that the book has ended but it was done so beautifully.

[Rose · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's been a while since I found I couldn't finish a book. Usually I try to get through any book I've started, even if I end up skim reading sections. I got 50 pages into this and found that not only did I have 0 interest in finding out where the story was going, I hadn't managed to retain much from the initial 50 pages either. Characters appear in disjointed sections that don't lead on from one another (I assume to give a chaotic feel, the implication being that it'll all come together later). This backfired with me, because I found myself asking 'Who's this? What do they have to do with that other guy?' and finding that the answer was: 'I don't actually care'. Maybe everything would have come together later in the story, but I just couldn't bring myself to stick it out. I have a lot of books I'm excited to read, and the thought of putting the rest off to trudge through this was more than my willpower could get behind.

[Lesley Truffle · Rating 3 out of 5]

The dubious legacy of this novel involves a bizarre deathbed request and a monstrous marriage that can never be repaired. For reasons that are never made clear, Henry Tillotson and his wife Margaret choose to stay married to the bitter end.

Set in England’s West County, Henry’s visitors are not unduly disturbed by the overt nastiness, pathological lying and vicious jibes of Henry’s wife. Even a cruel and ugly scene involving a hapless cockatoo, fails to draw attention to the innate madness of Margaret. She is not an invalid. And the fact that she rarely bothers getting out of her bed, is accepted by most of the visitors who come into contact with her.

Wesley’s story has pace and her tone is essentially comic. Her characters are very lively and up to all manner of subterfuge and deception.

[Hjwoodward · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy Mary Wesley's entertaining way of writing: such naughty things happen in her books! And she alludes to them subtly, it's not all in-your-face faithlessness and so on. The bride Henry brings home is just too awful for words. I like that the author doesn't diagnose her : she describes her mad behaviour without judging or justifying. I must say Henry is in the most awful predicament, but he manages his life quite well. I don't know why he's too squeamish to spend her money, though, were I his friend I would have urged him not to worry just because he dislikes her. It's not a valid enough reason, in my view! (But obviously, in Henry's). Such a self-absorbed dreadful woman, so well described! And the younger women are beautifully sketched too. Anyway, a very good read!

[Mike Little · Rating 2 out of 5]

A dubious tale. As I read this, I groaned inwardly, and maybe aloud, repeatedly. NO ONE talks like that, or if they do, they don't then stay all smiley and happy with one another. And the author must have been doing her best to assemble a cast of loveable but flawed characters, but mostly came up with a flock of unbelievable buffoons doing things that no one would ever do.

Motivations? Come on! I suspend less disbelief watching a Roadrunner cartoon. Then came the last chapters, full of chit-chat and maudlin pathos. But at least they were the last chapters.

Note to self: No more Mary Wesley.

[Teresa Gosling · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this to be a very strange book. The only character I liked was Henry but even his ineffectiveness in dealing with Margaret was irritating.

I am still not sure what the book was trying to say. Those young idealistic girls turned into jaded women who covered up their secrets. Henry had a sad life but at the end he had managed to win everyone to him.

The book was full of shocking moments obviously planned by the writer which I felt was manipulative. I don't think I'll read anymore Mary Wesley!

[Mary Lou · Rating 4 out of 5]

It feels like such a long time since I first read Mary Wesley in the late 80s and early 90s, and as I read A Dubious Legacy I wondered if I only properly appreciate her work now.
More or less by chance, Henry’s unusual existence becomes entangled with that of debs Antonia, Barbara and their boyfriends at a country house weekend often in unexpected and highly entertaining ways. A Dubious Legacy is smart, funny, poignant and sometimes cruel, and even though it rather peters out ultimately, I enjoyed every word.

[Jacqueline Worboys · Rating 4 out of 5]

Henry brought his new bride Margaret to Cotteshaw in 1944. On the threshold, she blackened his eye and went straight to bed, where she remained for the rest of her life except for time out for nasty deeds to Henry, the dogs, the parakeet and guests who remained for longer and longer periods of time. I enjoy Wesley's sense of humour and sweet cynicism in all of her books that I've read; this one was no exception.

[Lyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised and delighted by this book, set in post WW2 England with an unusual cast of well drawn characters The charming and attractive Henry has, like Mr Rochester, got saddled with an unfortunate, unhinged wife and the whys and wherefores of this marriage are central to the story. But the other characters have their own trials and challenges and a rich tapestry of relationships unfold.
A very compelling read.

[Rachael Richey · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I could, I would give this 3.5 stars. I enjoyed it, as I do all of Mary Wesley’s books, but it wasn’t quite a four star. The story was interesting and the writing, as always, was fabulous. But...I found it hard to warm to a single character. With the exception of Calypso and Hector who had strayed over from another book! Basically they were all pretty horrid, and I did find it was making me feel slightly depressed by the end. However I did still enjoy it.

[Roz Thompson-Van Eeden · Rating 1 out of 5]

i can save you the time of reading this book. I was given it and feel as though it was by someone who hates me! Its utter punishment having to read it with the flimsy characters and the lame plot boring me to tears. i kept reading thinking there must be a turn somewhere- only to be disappointed yet again. A simply dreadful waste of my time.

I feel as though I should burn the book instead of donating it to a charity shop to ensure that no one else has to be bothered with it.

[Isabella · Rating 3 out of 5]

All of Mary Wesley's books seem to have several things in common: strange, unlikeable characters behaving and talking in abnormal ways, death/ funerals, and introducing too many people that you can't keep track of.
I found it overly long, sad and depressing. The 1990's chapter at the end introduced way too many generations and felt unnecessary.
Margaret has to be one of the vilest characters she's written yet, it's hard to finish a book when you feel no sympathy for the people in it.

[Andrew McClarnon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This from my wife’s collection, a fine resource for dipping into when looking for something different… yet strangely always the same; big country house, grand anarchic family, mid 20th century goings on. This time we have less of a story, more a collection of moments, but told with gusto and a sense of wisdom. The matter of fact deathbed conversation is a lesson for the ages.

[Brad Wilber · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this, my first Wesley, right after leaving the sedate foibles of a Barbara Pym parish, so a bit of whiplash here as plot and characters were much more louche. When I was casting about for how to describe it, I saw that the Daily Mail described Mary Wesley's oeuvre as "rich concoctions of amoral spice and cleverness." Chef's kiss. I wish I'd known to read The Camomile Lawn first.

[Parlebane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoy Mary Wesley’s writing. Her characters are flawed, sometimes their lives can seem a terrible mess, yet beauty and meaning still emerges and is perhaps more appreciated because it cannot be taken for granted

[Catherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dated.

[C.J. Morrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!

[Susan]

1944-present day story of an English country house

[Victoria]

Adding books I’ve read before (some a long time ago).

Read and bought several of her books a long time ago.
Swedish translation. Printed 1995.