Wheel of Fortune III

The rest of the book is about the rivalry between Kester and his cousin Harry, John's son. This is based on the wars between Richard II and his cousin Henry Bolingbroke. John is still living in Gower, and is preoccupied with his difficult relationship with Bronwen. She is isolated by her class and the fact that she is living with a married man - and they have 4 children. He finds that although many people do criticise him for leaving his wife and living openly with a mistress, as a man, he does not get much condemnation. He begins to develop business interests, plays golf, while Bronwen is left alone. As he grows up, Harry Godwin is conventional and very unlike Kester who wants to be a writer. He marries young, to Bella Stourham, a girl from a gentry family who is not very intelligent, and starts to run his father's small estate, Penhale Manor. Kester marries a Jewish middle class girl, Anna - when he is only 19. He is much richer than Harry. Kester decides, after his marriage, to take over running Oxmoon, but within a short time he makes a mess of it. He does the house up, and makes it an artistic masterpiece, but has no experience at managing the land. He is obsessed with his writing, so he spends far too much money and neglects his tenants. John loses Bronwen, who goes away to Canada because she worries about her children by John, who are suffering from being illegitimate. John misses her desperately but they both feel that it's unfair to their children to have them laughed at because their parents are not married. John later returns to his wife Constance who has remained attached to him. He supports Bronwen and the children but has no contact with them. Soon after Kester's marriage, Ginevra dies of a stroke leaving Kester alone with Anna, but he has noone to guide him. John and Harry have to intervene when Kester's folly almost causes bankruptcy. He has to submit to his uncle managing his estate and being cool to him. John insists that he takes on Thomas, his other uncle as full time manager, and Kester hates Thomas, who is very stupid and unpleasant. War breaks out and Harry joins the army, but Kester is a pacifist. He does work on the estate to provide food, and John begins to think better of him. Harry is eager to prove his manhood, and joins the SAS which he finds challenging and frightening but he has a reputation for being brave and a good soldier so he hides his fear. At the end of the War, he returns to his wife and their sons, but there are problems in his marriage. Bella, his wife, is far below him intellectually, and she also has an obsession with having a daughter. She and Harry had made love during their teen years, and she became pregnant with a daughter. It was all hushed up, and Bella was sent abroad, but her baby died... and she longs for a girl to replace the baby. But she has had 4 sons in the first few years of the marriage and there's no sign of a daughter. Harry begins to find her exasperating. Harry envies Kester, who is well to do, able to devote time to his writing and who has no noisy children and a charming intelligent wife.