Marrying the Mistress

By: Joanna Trollope

Narrated by: Lindsay Duncan

Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

Merrion Palmer has been Judge Guy Stockdale's mistress for the last seven years and his wife and two grown-up sons know absolutely nothing about her. Up until now, Guy and Merrion have enjoyed a blissfully, uncomplicated relationship in stolen moments in Merrion's flat, and to the rest of the world, Guy has played the part of model husband, father and grandfather.

But now the time has come for things to change. Guy has become conscious of wasted years and he wants to share his relationship with Merrion with the world. He wants, dammit, to marry her. Yet he is quite unprepared for the storm that will follow...

©2009 Joanna Trollope (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"The court official leaned closer. 'What's gone past', he said, 'is not just an advocate, any old lady advocate. What's gone past is his Honour's totty.' And what's going past is the life of Guy Stockdale, a 62-year-old judge, who has been married forever, has two sons--Simon and Alan--and three grandchildren. For the past seven years, he's also had a mistress. Merrion Palmer is intelligent, attractive, and half Guy's age, which also makes her younger than both Simon and Alan. Her dad died when she was a toddler and she's well aware that Guy is something of a father substitute. For years the role of mistress has suited her, but, suddenly, this style of relationship isn't enough for either of them. They've both had enough of sneaking around and avoiding people, so Guy has momentously made up his mind to leave his wife, Laura, and marry Merrion. Marrying the Mistress dives into the shock waves that buffet the Stockdale family after Guy leaves Laura. The novel addresses the question of how his sons are going to cope, the explosive opinions of his forthright daughter-in-law Carrie and what his teenage grandchildren make of it all. Can any of them avoid taking sides? Should they? And what about the abandoned wife, Laura, a woman apparently so long-sufferingly self-sacrificing she makes Mother Teresa look selfish? From queen of the saga Joanna Trollope comes a dexterous portrayal of the causes and effects of marital breakdown." (Amazon.com review)

Ending at cross-purposes with novel!

In a novel in which everyone had something to say, and sometimes none too gracefully, this book ends in a disappointing and almost miserly manner.

My real problems though were with the quality of the narration — muddy and breathy, hard to make out. It was bad enough for me to have to give it three tries before succeeding. And for the nasty way the youngers in every generation spoke to the elders. Sad and startling.

Unexpected

The ending was unexpected. Kinda disappointing. I didn't really care for the narration. It made the book a little boring and didn't distinguish enough between character voices so it was kind of confusing at times.

My least favorite Joanna Trollope book

What would have made Marrying the Mistress better?

I personally didn't enjoy the narrator of this title - I don't know if it was her inflection, or the writing, but I thought the characters were on the whole awful people.

Would you ever listen to anything by Joanna Trollope again?

I've previously really enjoyed all of the previous Trollope books - would consider another one.

How could the performance have been better?

Different narrator definitely.

What character would you cut from Marrying the Mistress?

The daughters Rachel and Emma - horrible girls, spoilt.

Any additional comments?

Just overall completely unimpressed.