Howatch Part IV

The fourth novel in the Starbridge series is the only one narrated by a lay person.  It is also unusual in that it is the only novel narrated by a woman.  Scandalous Risks is the story of Venetia Flaxton, daughter of a reform minded peer, Lord Flaxton... who lives in Starbridge.  He is a member of the almost defunct Liberal Party.

  Venetia is the youngest of a large upper class family and has always felt left out, as the tail end member of 6 children.  She is not a beauty, and has not been a social success, because she was initially more interested in trying to get a good education than in society pursuits.   However in spite of her intellectual tastes, she feels that she is missing out on real life because of her lack of sex appeal. 

Venetia is a friend of Primrose Aysgarth, Neville’s serious minded older daughter and because of this she is friendly with him and his family.  Neville finds, in the 1960s that his marriage to Dido is still not a very easy or happy one.  He has committed himself to his wife, because she is a lonely neurotic woman and because his career as a clergyman would be impossible if he got divorced.   But he doesn't really love her...

 He is attracted to Venetia, who is eager to learn about things and who is young and fresh and the 2 have an unconsummated but intense relationship which leads her to despair.  Neville also is driven almost to breakdown...

In the other 2 novels of the series, we see the problems and crises that still bedevil Charles Ashworth, Jon and Neville as they grow older...  Charles loses his 2nd wife and has to work out a new relationship with his 2 sons.  He has to contend with the arrival of the Swinging Sixties and the changes in society and in the Church while evaluating his own conservative beliefs.
Jon also loses his wife and finds that his relationship with his youngest son, Nick, is under strain.  All three men though clergymen are prone to sin, problems and errors and have to work for their salvation. 

The six Starbridge novels were followed by a trilogy set in St Benet’s, a church in the City of London, set in the 1980s and 90s – almost the present.  The Church runs a counselling centre and focuses on lay people in crisis rather than clergy. 

I think that Howatch’s touch is less sure in this set of novels, although they include some of the Starbridge characters... However I feel that her Starbridge novels are her great achievement and I still enjoy reading them…