In the summer of 1766 Joshua Pope, a renowned artist, has taken a commission to paint a wedding portrait of Herbert Bentnick and his fiancee, Sabine Mercier. Joshua’s personal circumstances lead him to wish to escape London so he is ensconced at Herbert’s estate of Astley, outside London and near Richmond, to produce the painting. The gardens of the estate are beautiful, having been designed by Capability Brown (who makes an appearance in this story) but the centrepiece at this point is the conservatory - or pinery - where Sabine is growing pineapples. Joshua is the teller of this story and, perforce, both a hero and a victim: events happen to him and around him and he is subject to various assaults on his person and his integrity. A body appears in the pinery and, later, an emerald necklace disappears – around these facets a complicated story develops which involves all the members of Herbert’s and Sabine’s families, some of their neighbours and workers and Joshua’s friends.
The impression of Eighteenth Century life is superb. Contrasts abound between London and the country around it; between a gentleman’s country house and the lodgings of a fashionable painter. Minor details of costume, transport, manners and attitudes build up into a full picture. The esoteric details of pineapple-growing in England provide a fascinating digression just as Joshua’s pursuit of his craft gives a clear idea of how an Eighteenth Century painter worked at his paintings and how he organised his business. I had not thought before of the mechanics of landscape gardening but here I could see the machinery behind the smooth façade. The careful formality of conversation between the characters is beautifully conveyed – class differences are revealed by this means.
Eventually Joshua solves the mystery and explains it to his patron, Herbert. The effects of his discoveries are as shattering as the events that have already occurred. The story is recalled in later life, enabling all the loose ends to be securely tied.
On the back cover of this paperback is the statement ‘it is summer in 1795’
– a strangely inaccurate statement as the events of the story occur in 1766,
recollected in 1786.
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Jennifer Palmer
Earlier books in teh series are The Grendillo Box,