The rain tree

A beautifully written celebration of a life well lived. A host of vividly caught characters are here: Mirabel's extrovert, free-spirited mother Phyllis; Aylmer Vallance, who with extraordinary love letters would rescue her mother from a twilight life; Stella Bowen, Phyllis's lifelong friend and fellow student under Ezra Pound, their introduction to the London literati, notably Ford Madox Ford. And turning closer to the present, we encounter Michael, Mirabel's late husband, whose barbaric public-school childhood contrasted so dramatically with Mirabel's own.