I've also re-read Anita Brookner's A Closed Eye and Brief Lives. Throughout her books there is an air of melancholy and rarely, if ever, a conventionlly "happy ending" but I find them very real in characterisation and so poignant.
She died in 2016 and I often wonder if that ever-present sense of melancholy and stoicism was a reflection of her own life.
Good Morning Wednesday 1st July 2026
Unexpected opportunity to have a few days break next week and would love some recommendations




)