Description

When her mother Celia Paget died, Ariane Bankes inherited a battered trunk stuffed with letters and diaries belonging to Celia and her twin Mamaine. This correspondence charted the remarkable lives of the Paget sisters and their friends and lovers, including Arthur Koestler, Albert Camus, Sartre and de Beauvoir, and George Orwell.

Out of this rich archive, The Quality of Love weaves the story of these captivating and unusually beautiful identical twins who overcame a meagre education to take 1930s London society by storm and move among Europe’s foremost intellectuals during the twentieth century’s most dramatic decades. Above all, it is a sparkling portrait of the deep connection between two spirited sisters.

Publisher Review

‘Taking us from the high bohemia of 1930s London to the European intellectual scene of the 1940s and 1950s, Ariane Bankes weaves a story as spirited and alluring as the Paget sisters at its centre’ Antonia Fraser ‘[The Quality of Love] tells the story of Celia and Mamaine Paget and their friends and lovers, including George Orwell – and may prove a useful corrective to some of the claims made by Anna Funder in Wifedom, her recent book about Eileen Orwell’ Rachel Cooke, The Guardian ‘Ariane Bankes has painted a wonderfully rich and lovingly nuanced portrait of her mother and aunt, devoted twins, whose lives and loves traversed the intellectual currents and crises of mid twentieth-century Europe’ Rupert Christiansen ‘A sophisticated, cultured cast of writers and thinkers are convincingly woven together through the fascination of the Paget twins, who are the magnetic centre of the story… The Quality of Love conjures a treasure trove of characters who were at the heart of their age’ Virginia Nicholson, author of Among the Bohemians ‘A fascinating slice of social history seen through the lives of two dynamic, glamorous sisters. The Quality of Love also provides intriguing revelations about some of the great thinkers of the mid-twentieth century – George Orwell, Arthur Koestler, and Albert Camus – who were dazzled by the Paget twins. Hugely enjoyable’ Julia Parry, author of award-winning The Shadowy Third ‘The Quality of Love illuminates an intoxicating, almost lost world as never before, but its emotional heartbeat lies in the indissoluble trajectory of sibling love running through the lives of the magnetic Paget twins’ Juliet Nicolson, journalist and author of A House Full of Daughters ‘The sisters’ charms and talent for friendship are evident, as various stars of the postwar European intellectual firmament pass through the book’s pages. Most of all, though, it is enriched by the correspondence between the twins – for, ultimately, the great love story is theirs alone’ Telegraph ‘Lives at the intellectual heart of the mid-20th century… Part of the book’s fascination lies in the domestic side of these intellectuals… Oh, what lives they both led!’ Spectator