This book is the sequel to 'Meet the Maitlands', starting about five years later. There are rather too many characters, none of them particularly well-developed. The various Maitland families interact after the Squire dies, but the only interesting child is Chloë, a hot-tempered young teenager who wants to dance.

There's a Suffragette thread running alongside, featuring Violet, the bright girl from the previous book who has now finished grammar school and a degree. And since this book finishes in 1914, the shadow of World War I falls... rather abruptly in the final chapter, which leaves everything rather open. I assume the author intended a further sequel, but as she had a series of stroke and didn't live many years after the publication of this, it didn't happen.

Interesting from a social history perspective, and I'm pleased finally to have acquired and read the two Maitland books. But not up to Streatfeild's usual style, and overall somewhat disappointing. ( )