All Passion Spent
'For a life of her own, he had substituted his life with its interests, or the lives of her children with their potentialities. He assumed that she might sink herself in either, if not both, with equal joy. It had never occurred to him that she might prefer simply to be herself.'
Irreverent, entertaining and insightful, this is a tale of the unexpected joys of growing older.
When the great statesman Lord Slane dies, everyone assumes his dutiful wife will slowly fade away, but Lady Slane surprises everyone by escaping to a rented house in Hampstead where she revels in her new freedom, revives youthful ambitions and gathers some very unsuitable companions.
Tender, poignant and beautifully written, All Passion Spent is Sackville-West at her finest.