24 Comments

That last sentence. All the balance and poise of a dancer at the Royal Ballet. Wonderful.

Expand full comment
author

🙌

Expand full comment
Apr 21Liked by Eleanor Anstruther

“Why did these things always happen to her?” Indeed.

Expand full comment
author

Indeed.

Expand full comment

The conflict moves here and captures. Oh, Ros!

Expand full comment

“Scott without the real Elvira there to guide him.” What a telling line. I’m gonna piggyback on Jeffrey‘s comment. The balance and poise throughout this piece is stunning.

Expand full comment
author

Thanks, Holly. There is nothing like the feeling that these words are hitting their mark.

Expand full comment
Feb 21Liked by Eleanor Anstruther

What a fabulous catch up. Saved the last three chapters ! So many mixed emotions for all the characters even Ros

Expand full comment
author

💃🏻

Expand full comment
Feb 20Liked by Eleanor Anstruther

I’d been saving this because I knew it was going to be a brilliant episode and I wanted to have it with coffee and a pain au chocolate for ultimate enjoyment (and it was). I just didn’t want it to end. When the whole novel finishes I’m going to block out a day to read it start to finish. Bliss.

Expand full comment
author

Thanks, Chloe. I'm having a Nick Cave RHF #274 ish kind of day, so hearing this is a much needed shot in the arm. x

Expand full comment
Feb 20Liked by Eleanor Anstruther

Glad to hear it helped. #274 is a brilliant shorthand for when we’ve been left museless btw x

Expand full comment
author

🙌🏻

Expand full comment
Feb 20Liked by Eleanor Anstruther

The dialogue reads so fluidly, like prestige streaming, or Rachel Cusk, so packed with nuance.

Expand full comment
author

I’ll take that comparison with a thank you, Alisa.

Expand full comment
Feb 19Liked by Eleanor Anstruther

had to look up pashmina. Great. Every time I read a chapter I feel fully immersed, dipped in that world you create.

Expand full comment
author

Ha! You can't move for them in the Home Counties. I'm taking it as a Good Thing that you didn't know what they were. And thank you. As a fan of your work, this makes me very happy.

Expand full comment
Feb 19Liked by Eleanor Anstruther

Oh Eleanor I confess that I have dipped in and out of your beautiful writing over the past couple of months because ...life perhaps intervened. I am sitting here now having gone back to the beginning so as not to miss a word. It's intoxicating. Very much like I'm bingeing a long delicious Netflix series in one session as I am transported to the countryside of my teenage years. I have mentally cast every character and can smell the wet dogs and the tension that is between every line driving me to want to rug up for a strong G&T by the fire at the pub immediately. Only it is a summer morning here in Oz. Bless you for this brilliant writing.

Expand full comment
author

So pleased about that, and from someone who knows, viscerally, the emotional and physical landscape of this setting, it's a real gift to hear you say that. Settle in, blanket's over there, I'll get the first round.

Expand full comment

Evil Diane: "You're not to worry about the play."

Emotional preterition.

I'm loving hating her.

Expand full comment

That 'imagining' paragraph - how we anticipate things so viscerally is just haunting. This was a wonderful installment, Eleanor.

Expand full comment
author

Thanks, Kathleen x

Expand full comment

Wonderful!

Expand full comment
author

Thanks for restack!

Expand full comment