Honeycomb Cottage seems to be the perfect rural idyll, complete
with roses round the door. Liffey and Richard, fresh from London,
stumble upon it one summer, and after a spot of al-fresco
lovemaking Liffey persuades her doting husband that they should
sell their London flat and retreat to the clean air of the
countryside. After all, Richard can always commute. They are
blissfully unaware that their every move has been watched by the
malevolent Mabs, their future neighbour. Liffey's youth, prosperity
and innocence infuriate Mabs, and when they finally move in, she
becomes determined to wreck Liffey's dream home. Aided by Tucker,
her devoted spouse, Mabs plots the happy couple's downfall, masking
her wicked intentions with a guise of friendly neighbourliness.
Using ill will, herbal potions and spies in the village, she soon
succeeds in isolating Liffey, as Richard spends more of his time in
London, reluctantly returning at weekends, to find fault with his
delicate wife whose naivety has stranded them in the middle of
nowhere. But Richard has found other means of compensation, and his
working week is enlivened by a growing number of mistresses. Just
as it seems that Mabs has won, she is enraged to find that Liffey
is pregnant and sets out on a new course of destruction - for it is
uncertain whether the baby is Richard's or Tucker's. In happy
ignorance, Liffey swallows the natural medicines pressed on her,
brews and concoctions that are intended to jeopardise the life of
her child. When she finally discovers the awful truth, Liffey must
find untapped inner strength to deflect the evil conspiracy against
her. Always bitingly perceptive of human weaknesses, Fay Weldon
lines up her characters like wind-up soldiers, then sets them off
against each other, recording the results with gleeful derision.
Often uncomfortably astute, Puffball exposes the shallow state of
contemporary life and the deceptive webs with which we weave our
lives. (Kirkus UK)
Richard and Liffey haven't been married long. They are still madly in love, and lust, and so, when Liffey suggests moving out of London to a country cottage in the middle of Somerset, Richard puts aside his reservations; he wants his young, pretty wife to be happy, after all.
But then the real world intervenes, and Richard must remain in London during the week and see his Liffey, now pregnant, only on weekends. And so that leaves poor Liffey, pregnant and alone, burdened, confused and frustrated by biological impulses which are suddenly overwhelming her. Can she rely on Mabs, her seemingly kindly neighbour, and Tucker, her rather over-friendly husband, for solace? Surely there can't be anything sinister in their motives – can there? At least she has no reason to doubt Richard's love for her – or does she?
With wit, wisdom, and a little dose of witchery, Fay Weldon reveals the conflicts that arise from the eternal struggle between male and female.
'Magical – she lays out the ingredients of her brew with a kind of manipulative glee, coolly moulding her characters and then neatly skewering them with mockery.'
'Daily Mail'
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