English Mirrors: Healing by Degrees

English Mirrors: Healing By Degrees is a story of success, paid for by its characters according to life's invoices. It is about talented and emotionally rich young professionals of varied national gene pools. The differences in their cultural backgrounds bring additional sharpness and excitement to the novel and make it appealing to the international audience. One of the themes corresponds to that of The Forsyte Saga with emphasis on the contemporary atmosphere in London. The novel explores: the 'Englishness' of the main characters and its expression in a multicultural London, echoing in Europe and the world through the centuries; and personal harmony and financial stability in a changing world, which sustains outward crises and inward pressures, arising from being born to certain parents in a certain stratum of society. It is of interest to people of different nationalities, from teenage to those of more advanced years as it deals with life issues on the backdrop of an extended family history. Heroes meet in their mid- to late twenties, that is, with the baggage of previous experience, which imprisons their personae and overshadows their desires for a happy future together. Much more than 'a faint heart won no fair lady' exemplar, this romantic tale explores relationships and human behaviour at the fundamental level, when the wicket gets sticky. The story wends its way around members of a well-to-do extended English family with close friends and acquaintances, minus the parents of two brothers, against a background helping of twentieth-century History. A broad cast of eight well-drawn main characters is supported by a similar number of other personalities, including a dog, whose purpose is far beyond fetching sticks. A couple approaching old age finds themselves responsible for the upbringing of their Grandchildren, two boys, following the deaths of their son and daughter-in-law. The Grandfather has a distinguished past and present, both kept secret behind a facade of affable buffoonery, to avoid awkward questions. His wife believes he is an extraordinarily lucky gambler (correct for all the wrong reasons) and is quietly terrified of the luck running out and leaving the family in penury. In fact, the family is financially secure as a result of well-engineered covert post-war enterprises. Big money is far more secure behind the silence and germane behaviour of those holding it. The eldest brother, Edward, has grown into a successful lawyer, running a multitasking business, who, because of the effective smokescreen generated by his Grandfather, believes he has been managing the family finances for years. His brother Richard is gradually becoming an established artist. However, he suffers from bouts of acute shyness, which leads to a serious flaring of wounded pride that threatens the whole future of the family, when a young woman arrives on the scene. The narrative has plenty of dialogue and a love triangle, which is turned into a beautiful square through the efforts of Claire, the main heroine. There follow two marriage announcements, hence the title of one of the chapters Fiori Matrimoniali ( Wedding Flowers ) - also an atelier of artificial flowers in Domodossola, where Claire finds the solution, in its owner Donna