I am forever grateful to Jean Marsh for co-creating The House of Eliott, a childhood favourite, but this novel (pilfered off the library shelf) makes that series seem like a Shakespearean drama. Marsh is a decent author, but her characters are clichés and the plot is meandering to say the least. I'm not sure what the point of this story was - an 'aga saga', or merely a thinly veiled rant at modern living and the churning up of the English countryside - but I wasn't really drawn in by the past, and the 1990s chapters were both jarring and awkward. Recommended for the Downton Abbey massive (probably retitled from Fiennders Keepers with just that intention) or gentle readers of family sagas. ( )