“Women's courage is rather different from men's. The fact that women have to bring up children and look after husbands makes them braver at facing long-term issues, such as illness. Men are more immediately courageous. Lots of people are brave in battle.”
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I have deliberately left Sylvester and Julia's appearances to the reader's imagination.
That image of the countryside being a threatening place still exists. People continue to resist the challenge of learning about aspects of life they don't understand.
People try much less hard to make a marriage work than they used to fifty years ago. Divorce is easier.
I was sent to a finishing school, which didn't last long when mother found out how badly chaperoned we were. Then I 'came out' before going to a domestic science school.