There's a gathering of high-achieving ladies at the remote and expensive Castle Spa over the 10 days of Christmas and New Year. None of them have met before. Have they no homes to go to? Why have they put their lives on hold? Perhaps they think they've come to seek (through Botox, aromatherapy, and extravagant pampering) a better understanding of their lives?But the ladies are wilful: they lounge around in the Jacuzzi, drinking champagne, eating permitted caviar and forbidden chocolate, and confessing the stories of their lives, startling and scandalous though these may be. Perhaps they have found a better therapy?
Witty, compassionate and casually libidinous, Fay Weldon's sparkling new novel, in its 10 days of storytelling, nods back to the Decameron of Boccaccio, who dedicated his book to the ladies of his time. They were forced to hide their amorous passions under a veil of discretion, while men stayed free to indulge theirs. Weldon's women, on the other hand, are women of today: no veil of discretion for them.
