It’s 1960s London, and the sexual revolution is in full swing in Fay Weldon’s enduring story of lust, marriage, family, art, avarice, ambition, betrayal, and true love
Clifford Wexford and Helen Lally meet at a party and fall passionately in love. But their baby, Nell, isn’t yet one when their marriage unravels. Divorce quickly follows on the heels of wedding bliss, and so begins a battle for Nell’s care and affection. Helen remarries; Clifford has affairs—and something quite remarkable happens to little Nell. Fay Weldon has written a sparkling gem of a novel, in which good triumphs over malice, and love can still conquer all. Part allegory, part adventure story, The Hearts and Lives of Men reveals the souls of both men and women.
Novelist, playwright, and screenwriter Fay Weldon was born in England, brought up in New Zealand, and returned to the United Kingdom when she was fifteen. She studied economics and psychology at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. She worked briefly for the Foreign Office in London, then as a journalist, and then as an advertising copywriter. She later gave up her career in advertising, and began to write fulltime. Her first novel, The Fat Woman’s Joke, was published in 1967. She was chair of the judges for the Booker Prize for fiction in 1983, and received an honorary doctorate from the University of St Andrews in 1990. In 2001, she was named a Commander of the British Empire. Weldon’s work includes more than twenty novels, five collections of short stories, several children’s books, nonfiction books, magazine articles, and a number of plays written for television, radio, and the stage, including the pilot episode for the television series Upstairs Downstairs. She-Devil, the film adaption of her 1983 novel The Life and Loves of a She Devil, starred Meryl Streep in a Golden Globe–winning role.