Synopses & Reviews
Review
"What do Rudyard Kipling, Stanley Baldwin, and Angela Thirkell have in common? They were all cousins, the children and grandchild of three of four Macdonald sisters who married far beyond their Methodist preacher-father's intention or expectations.
Georgiana married the painter Edward Burne-Jones; their daughter Margaret married J.W. Mackail and produced Angela Thirkell. Alice married John Lockwood Kipling and produced Rudyard. Louisa married Alfred Baldwin and produced a prime minister. A fourth sister, Agnes, also married a painter, Edward Poynter, but her offspring were not as well known. The rest of this large family of 11 either died young or lived unnoteworthy lives. But the four sisters, who were close to each other all their lives, no matter how far apart in actuality, were extraordinary in the way in which they enlarged their circle of friends and acquaintances and escaped the rigorous confines of ever-changing Methodist parsonages. Ms. Taylorhas done a remarkable job in fitting together all the pieces of these sisters' lives from start to finish. The book also contains a good number of interesting illustrations." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)