The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones, Random House Australia, $32.95
What teases on first dipping as a simpering tale of ludicrously upper crust English Edwardian life “above stairs”, crescendos into an almost operatic staging of Dickensian morality.
When a motley crew of injured train passengers are deposited by the faceless Great Central Railway following a rail crash, on the portico of nearby country house Sterne, the toffy Torrington brood have no intention of anything interrupting Emerald’s birthday party.
“Had they seen a maid before? And watch the ornaments and trinkets!” Herding the “fetid” second and third class passengers to the back of the house, baby sibling Smudge plays tiddlywinks and her pony, aware though that “the feeling in the house suddenly was unlike any she had ever known before.”
Amid mounting menace the parlour games give way to a tension not dissimilar to an advancing chorus from Les Miserables! Jones’ astute observations of the differences between “classes” make for bawdy, ballsy reading.
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