A Houseful of Girls
1902
Six sisters. One sprawling Hertfordshire house. A world where every hallway echoes with pianractice and whispered conspiracies, where charity sales demand the gravity of military campaigns, and where the arrival of mysterious new neighbors at the Grange promises to upend the comfortable rhythms of Edwardian girlhood. The Rendell sistersChristabel with her grand ambitions, musical Maud, reflective Elsis, and the restform a constellation of personalities as distinct as they are inseparable. They argue and reconcile, scheme and support one another, each wrestling with questions of purpose and identity that feel startlingly modern despite the antimacassars and afternoon calls. Mrs. Vaizey writes with a lightness of touch that makes the reader feel they've stumbled through the front door of this chaotic household mid-conversation and been offered tea and a conspiratorial grin. It's a book about the way sisters know you better than you know yourself: your fears, your vanities, your quietest hopes. For anyone who has ever shared a bedroom, a secret, or a lifetime with sisters.
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“If grown-ups were sensible, they would allow a child to follow its own instinct. Nature must surely know better than mothers; and my nature tells me to sit up at nights and have breakfast in bed.””
— George de Horne, Mrs. Vaizey
