Heather Lacey

Wifedom is a thought provoking study of a marriage between Eileen and Eric Blair. Eric Blair was to write his novels under the name George Orwell. In this biography of sorts Anna Funder has set out to find Eileen’s voice within her marriage. It is a bleak tale of an exceptionally tough and smart and loyal woman who gave everything she ever had to her husband yet she was barely noticed and certainly never appreciated or valued. Wifedom made me angry and sad that Eileen approached her almost death thinking that she was unworthy of decent and high quality health care.

Any book that makes me cry as Bridge of Clay has-and moved me so-deserves five stars.

This family and most particularly the Mother Willa were such a depressing lot. I found them unbearable. I only read the book because it is a book group book.