William's Wife by Gertrude Trevyelan catherine bailey delves deep into a disturbed

delves deep into a disturbed mind – and in doing so it explores the roots of the great ills of the twentieth century

We give things up when we believe we can change

First published in 2000

almost winding me with its intensity

William's Wife by Gertrude Trevyelan catherine bailey delves deep into a disturbedWhen Jane marries the elderly grocer William Chirp, she thinks she has moved up into the comfort of middle class. Instead, she discovers that William exerts a control over her life that forces her to live like a prisoner. His tight fistedness and suspicions so affect Jane that even after his death, she finds herself trapped in a penny pinching paranoia and resorts to scavenging for food out of garbage bins and taking her silverware with her everywhere