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The last in a series of domestic comedies set in and around the cathedral town of Eyot, all featuring the Mountjoys, a family of seemingly numberless cousins: spiky, funny, and ever-so-slightly bonkers (the books and the characters both). I wish there were more of them, but as this last one was written in 1999, that doesn’t look likely. The stories occupy an odd temporal lacuna: although they were written in the 1990s, they’re obviously set a great deal earlier - 'Children of Chance' has a feel of being as early as the 1960s and, from comments the characters let drop from time to time (a 22-year-old remembers events from 1956, a 50-year-old was married just after the Second World War), the rest of the timeline takes place in the 1970s. Certainly parts of 'Unaccustomed Spirits' take place in a decidedly Cold War Hungary. I wonder whether the first book was actually originally drafted in the 1960s and then vamped up for publication years later; that might also account for its writing style being rather less sophisticated than the later books.

Because Eyot Cathedral has a strong musical heritage, and the city hosts a major music festival, music plays a strong supporting role throughout the books, almost to the point where it becomes a character in its own right. Sylvester, who appears in every book, is a world-renowned cellist; Quinta, the underage unmarried mother who takes centre stage in 'Divine Comedy' forges a somewhat improbable career for herself as a lutenier, lives with a composer with the equally improbable name of Alban Praetorius, and her daughter, Phoebe, is taken under Sylvester’s wing as a budding cellist, while her best friend Lydia plays the double bass; Justinia, in 'Unholy Harmonies' is a gifted singer whose husband wants her to settle down and be a wife and mother … and so on. (The names? Ah, yes, the names. I know. Nowhere else, other than perhaps in an episode of 'Spartacus', will you find a conversation between characters called Faustina and Titus. But that’s just the posh folk: the domestics aren’t quite called Mrs Overall, but it does come awfully close.)

Adding to the aforementioned bonkersness of it all, there is the occasional supernatural element drifting through the storylines. Sylvester’s housekeeper Lily has a knack of knowing things well before they happen; 'Unaccustomed Spirits' adds a couple of rather delightful ghosts to the cast, 'Brotherly Love' features a blocked writer who conjures up an all-too-physical muse, while 'Unholy Harmonies' brings us a Russian danceur who is not only slumming as a dancing telegram but also appears to be channelling Dionysus and ends up leading most of the village into a Bacchanal.

I haven’t even mentioned Valdemar, the Mountjoy who’s either the focal point of or the catalyst for a number of the books. He’s a fascinating character: romantic, reckless and ruthless, an utter bastard for most of the series but, at the same time, honest and insightful – except where his own behaviour is concerned.

Romances, for the most part, these are not: the stories are as likely to end (or begin) with a jilting at the altar or a divorce as with a happy-ever-after – and, although Justinia does leave her husband and head for London with an admirer, it’s not to be with him; it’s to study singing professionally. Far more important! They are, however, romantic; a delightful read, and a real treasure. ( )

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