#Review: Family Portrait by Victoria Connelly @VictoriaDarcy #womensfiction #familydrama #LakeDistrict #Grasmere #FamilyPortrait

It’s taken me rather longer than I originally planned to get around to reading and reviewing the latest book from the lovely Victoria Connelly, Family Portrait: independently published on 9th July, it’s now available for kindle (and free via Kindle Unlimited) and also in paperback. Many thanks to the author for my reading ecopy.

I’m a tremendous fan of Victoria’s writing. You might know her series best – perhaps The Book Lovers, or The Austen Addicts, or the more recent The House in the Clouds – but I must say I’ve particularly enjoyed her standalone books. The Beauty of Broken Things (one of my 2020 Books of the Year) was stunning – not a romance, conventional or otherwise, but a very special book that overflowed with love.  It dealt realistically with the extremes of grief, but was also uplifting, sometimes positively joyous, full of hope, a book of “moments” all exquisitely drawn (you’ll find my review here). And then there was Way to the Sea – one of my 2023 Books of the Year. The character development was just superb, the emotional rebuilding of two damaged people’s lives, and the most beautiful Dorset setting (you’ll find my review of that one here). So I was delighted to finally be able to find some reading time for her latest, again a standalone – this was a book I was really looking forward to…

Sometimes, it’s those closest to you who are hiding the most.

 

After the death of their artist father, Alex, Brenna and Cordelia Bellwood return to Slate House – the Victorian mansion in the Lake District where they grew up together. But the three siblings have very different memories of being there and of their relationship with their famous father.

 

For Alex, his passion for art was always overshadowed by his father’s fame. For Brenna, life was turned upside down when their mother left them, forcing her to grow up much too quickly. And Cordelia – once the beloved muse of her father – now questions her role after a shocking revelation that threatens the whole family.

 

Set against the beautiful backdrop of Grasmere, Family Portrait is a lyrical and poignant story showing that the things that tear us apart can also bring us together again.

Following the death of their renowned artist father, his three adult children – Alex, Brenna and Cordelia – must return to the family home at Slate House near Grasmere. Brenna is first to arrive, living closest – she has a small cottage she loves, and a picture framing shop in Skipton – and the first to revisit her memories of the difficult relationship she had with her father. Next arrives Cordelia – the youngest, an actress in London, perhaps the most sensitive, and the only one of the siblings who had fonder memories. Alex proves more elusive – an artist himself, always in his father’s shadow and with resulting demons of his own, he’s reluctant to return from the Greek island of Skopelos where he now lives – until Brenna travels there to remind him of their shared responsibilities.

So many of us have been faced with that difficult task of dividing up and disposing of assets, and the author deals so very well with both the practical and emotional issues – the latter especially complex because of the differing nature of their memories. And, as if the decisions about personal belongings, items of furniture, and paintings both finished and unfinished aren’t difficult enough, things become increasingly complicated by a revelation about their father’s life that stuns them all. Brenna escapes by rekindling a friendship with a childhood friend, still living on a nearby farm that always felt more like home than her own – Alex’s refuge tends to be found at the bottom of a bottle. But Cordelia remembers a painting by her father – a family group – that becomes particularly important to her, that might make a difference to their understanding and healing, and sets about a search to track it down.

As well as being a compelling story, told through their different memories and perspectives, this was a book that dealt so very well with the emotional impact of loss – never straightforward, and even less so when overlaid with the tensions of their sibling relationship and the shockwaves from that later discovery. The Lake District setting – the forbidding house surrounded by the banks of hydrangeas her father loved (and their mother, no longer around, hated), the deep lakes and brooding fells their father painted – is quite wonderfully represented, with the most vivid descriptions, almost another character in the story. And the siblings’ journey to self awareness, putting the past to rest and looking to a happier future, is perfectly handled – I was entirely caught up in their lives, their shared thoughts and emotions extraordinarily real.

It’s a gentle and thoughtful read – there are certainly surprises, but no real fireworks. And it’s definitely not all gloom, doom and despondency – there’s lightness at times, moments of joy, even some unexpected touches of romance. But I felt that the book’s particular strength was in its exploration of the impact of a father’s death on his family, however difficult or lacking in love their relationship might have been, and the ripples that can remain when there are secrets that have been so deeply hidden. And I have to say that I loved every moment – the characterisation, the focus on what family means, the shadows of the past, the complexity of grief and its emotional impact, and the quiet beauty of the writing.

About the author

Victoria Connelly lives in a 500-year old thatched cottage in rural Suffolk with her artist husband, a springer spaniel and a flock of ex-battery hens. She is the million-selling author of two bestselling series, The Austen Addicts and The Book Lovers, as well as many other novels and novellas. Her first published novel, Flights of Angels, was made into a film in Germany. Victoria loves books, films, walking, historic buildings and animals. If she isn’t at her keyboard writing, she can usually be found in her garden either with a trowel in her hand or a hen on her lap.

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