In Review

21 November 2008 18:32 BST

Silk by Penny Jordan

Published by Avon, out now, paperback, 663pp, £6.99.

In a nutshell…

Decadent, romantic, 1930s high-society drama

What's it all about?

Passionate, free-spirited young orphan Amber Vrontsky dreams of forging her own artistic career with the silk she, like her parents before her, loves so much. However, her imposing grandmother Blanche, the all-powerful matriarch of the Pickford dynasty, has rather different ideas. Intent on securing for her granddaughter that which eluded herself – the marriage to a titled husband – she forces Amber to enter the lavish, decadent world of London's aristocratic society as a debutante, where she is swept up in the destructive whims of the supremely privileged and talented high-society darlings; including Cecil Beaton and the glamorous Mitford sisters.

The novel follows Amber in her struggle to retain her sense of self in this fascinating, luxuriant web of illicit affairs, lavender marriages and closely-guarded secrets, and reveals both the scandal and the glamour of the tumultuous 1930s.

Who's it by?

Silk marks a departure into the mainstream market for bestselling author Penny Jordan, who is best known for her Mills and Boon romance novels. Jordan has written over 170 books, selling over 80 million copies worldwide, and also publishes under the pseudonym Annie Groves. Silk was inspired by the Macclesfield silk manufacturing industry, where Penny lived for twenty five years with her late husband.

As an example…

"Amber's parents taught her the history of silk, and with it the history of life, and how it bound together so many cultures and civilisations; how it stretched in the longest of journeys across deserts and seas, and how it inspired in humankind the greatest of passions, from love to greed."

Likelihood of becoming a Hollywood blockbuster

Unlikely. There is enough here to satisfy fans of the romantic-saga, but it just doesn't have the sparkle of a Hollywood rom-com.

What the others say

"Spoil yourself with this dazzling, decadent treat. The ultimate guilty pleasure for fans of Danielle Steel and Penny Vincenzi" – Avon Books

So is it any good?

Silk is in many ways a rather ambitious novel, attempting to marry lavish high-society romance with what at times seems like a sweeping overview of the 1930s. The reader is whisked from the opulence of London's aristocracy via the dark opium dens of Hong Kong into Nazi-controlled Europe and the trials of the second world war. While this certainly gives the novel substance, lending some weight to the romantic liaisons that litter the book, at times the tension between fantasy and reality can seem a little too strained.

This is compounded by the sheer luxuriousness of Jordan's prose, which might in places have been lifted straight from those Mills and Boon novels to which she owes her fame. The prose is in danger of being overly cloying as Jordan insists on imbuing every dramatic moment with the motif of silk, which, while at first fascinating, quickly becomes somewhat overbearing, leaving the analogy more irritating than intriguing.

Despite this, Silk is a really very readable book – even if the temptation is to skip those frequent flowery passages – and carries the reader along at a relentless, if gentle pace. It is a tribute to Jordan's characterisation that we really come to care for the characters we see mature throughout the decade, and I'll admit I even had a tear in my eye as the last section of the novel weaves together into a really quite moving finale.

In short, this is a somewhat over-long and flowery romance, but with plenty of elements to keep the reader interested.

6/10

Ashley Cook