Explore Further
Recommendations
Subject Headings
Loading...
Random House, Inc.
It was Patrick's idea that they should have the tennis party. After all, he has the perfect setting -- the White House, bought out of his bonuses as an investment banker. He hasn't actually told Caroline, his brash and beautiful wife, what the real reason for the party is. She is glad to welcome Stephen and Annie, their impoverished former neighbours, less glad to see newly wealthy Charles and his aristocratic wife Cressida, and barely able to tolerate the deadly competitive Don and Valerie.
But as the first ball is served over the net it signals the start of two days of tempers, shocks, revelations, the arrival of an uninvited guest, and the realization that the weekend is about anything but tennis.
Gardners
It was Patrick's idea that they should have the tennis party. She is glad to welcome Stephen and Annie, their impoverished former neighbours, less glad to see newly wealthy Charles and his aristocratic wife Cressida, and barely able to tolerate the deadly competitive Don and Valerie.
It was Patrick's idea that they should have the tennis party. After all, he has the perfect setting -- the White House, bought out of his bonuses as an investment banker. He hasn't actually told Caroline, his brash and beautiful wife, what the real reason for the party is. She is glad to welcome Stephen and Annie, their impoverished former neighbours, less glad to see newly wealthy Charles and his aristocratic wife Cressida, and barely able to tolerate the deadly competitive Don and Valerie.
But as the first ball is served over the net it signals the start of two days of tempers, shocks, revelations, the arrival of an uninvited guest, and the realization that the weekend is about anything but tennis.
Gardners
It was Patrick's idea that they should have the tennis party. She is glad to welcome Stephen and Annie, their impoverished former neighbours, less glad to see newly wealthy Charles and his aristocratic wife Cressida, and barely able to tolerate the deadly competitive Don and Valerie.
- Details
- Full Record
- Additional Info
Searching for more content…
Publisher:
London : Black Swan, 2011
ISBN:
9780552776691
0552776696
0552776696
Characteristics:
335 p. ; 20 cm
Opinion
From the critics
Community Activity
Loading...
Comment
Add a CommentThis is a good place to start if you're a Sophie Kinsella fan and want to read the author's books as written by Madeleine Wickham. Just keep in mind that they are not as fluffy as the Kinsella books and are meant to be more "realistic", moreso in the sense that there are affairs, business deals gone wrong, etc. than everyday people actually having millions of pounds or dollars to worry about. Bottom line: Wickham's novels are on subjects less frivolous than the shopping addictions in Kinsella's works.
Light easy read, but not particularly funny or memorable.
full of secrets and characters you can love to hate or hate to love.. and my opinions of the characters completely changed as the novel went on (I ended up liking the ones I disliked at first, and disliking the ones I initially liked). a couple good laughs in there too. easy to read in 1 or 2 sittings. mindless and entertaining.
An interesting romp through a weekend tennis party in the English countryside home of the upwardly mobile. A fast read but none of the characters are particularly likeable.