What would you sacrifice to achieve your dream?
Painter Tom Proctor and his wife Antonia are among innumerable victims of the so-called Welfare State, their problem complicated by their child, Noelle, who is in desperate need of care.
Tom's career has arrived at an impasse, in which his sole support is the steadfast belief of Antonia in the value and honesty of his work.
Torn between duty to wife and child and artistic integrity, Tom is about to plav for safety by accepting a salaried job in an art school.
But, realising that he is by training and temperament wholly unfitted tor such work, and that it can only lead to disaster, Antonia makes a terrible choice, and by an act of desperation prevents the sacrifice.
Freed of their tragic responsibility, the pair of them leave for the South of France, where Tom has been offered a commission to decorate a Saracen tower to the specifications of an elderly French dilettante with more financial acumen than conscience.
After a few days, however, both realise they have been disillusioned by a romanticised vision of life in France, and their tragedy back in London has significantly marred their relationship.
Proctor spends his days enjoying drink after drink, with little work being done on the tower, whilst Antonia confines herself to her own solitude, feeling he is losing his vision.
Feeling insignificant and frustrated, Antonia announces that she will be gone for a while.
After hearing little from her whilst she is away, Proctor remembers why they came to France and gets back to work on The Tower.
His longing for Antonia intensifies over time and matters are heightened when it is made evident that Proctor has been used as a tool in Mesurat's money-making scheme.
In The Tower, Marguerite Steen delicately explores domestic tension and the strength that comes from a loving relationship against an artistic backdrop she knows so well.
'Miss Steen is a superb manipulator of scene, and she makes her places as alive as her people' - Daily Telegraph
'Rich and enjoyable' - The Observer
'fine scenes and piquant portraits' - The Sunday Times
'a vivid narrative' - Manchester Guardian
'full of colour and character' - John o' London's Weekly
'rich, lavish, violent, passionate' - Evening News
Marguerite Steen (12 May 1894 - 4 August 1975) was a British writer. Very much at home among creative people, she wrote biographies of the Terrys, of her friend Hugh Walpole, of the 18th century poet and actress (and sometime mistress to the Prince of Wales) Mary 'Perdita' Robinson, and of her own lover, the artist Sir William Nicholson. Her first major success was Matador (1934),for which she drew on her love of Spain, and of bullfighting. Also a best-seller on both sides of the Atlantic was her massive saga of the slave-trade and Bristol shipping,The Sun Is My Undoing (1941).She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1951.
Painter Tom Proctor and his wife Antonia are among innumerable victims of the so-called Welfare State, their problem complicated by their child, Noelle, who is in desperate need of care.
Tom's career has arrived at an impasse, in which his sole support is the steadfast belief of Antonia in the value and honesty of his work.
Torn between duty to wife and child and artistic integrity, Tom is about to plav for safety by accepting a salaried job in an art school.
But, realising that he is by training and temperament wholly unfitted tor such work, and that it can only lead to disaster, Antonia makes a terrible choice, and by an act of desperation prevents the sacrifice.
Freed of their tragic responsibility, the pair of them leave for the South of France, where Tom has been offered a commission to decorate a Saracen tower to the specifications of an elderly French dilettante with more financial acumen than conscience.
After a few days, however, both realise they have been disillusioned by a romanticised vision of life in France, and their tragedy back in London has significantly marred their relationship.
Proctor spends his days enjoying drink after drink, with little work being done on the tower, whilst Antonia confines herself to her own solitude, feeling he is losing his vision.
Feeling insignificant and frustrated, Antonia announces that she will be gone for a while.
After hearing little from her whilst she is away, Proctor remembers why they came to France and gets back to work on The Tower.
His longing for Antonia intensifies over time and matters are heightened when it is made evident that Proctor has been used as a tool in Mesurat's money-making scheme.
In The Tower, Marguerite Steen delicately explores domestic tension and the strength that comes from a loving relationship against an artistic backdrop she knows so well.
Praise for Marguerite Steen
'Miss Steen is a superb manipulator of scene, and she makes her places as alive as her people' - Daily Telegraph
'Rich and enjoyable' - The Observer
'fine scenes and piquant portraits' - The Sunday Times
'a vivid narrative' - Manchester Guardian
'full of colour and character' - John o' London's Weekly
'rich, lavish, violent, passionate' - Evening News
Marguerite Steen (12 May 1894 - 4 August 1975) was a British writer. Very much at home among creative people, she wrote biographies of the Terrys, of her friend Hugh Walpole, of the 18th century poet and actress (and sometime mistress to the Prince of Wales) Mary 'Perdita' Robinson, and of her own lover, the artist Sir William Nicholson. Her first major success was Matador (1934),for which she drew on her love of Spain, and of bullfighting. Also a best-seller on both sides of the Atlantic was her massive saga of the slave-trade and Bristol shipping,The Sun Is My Undoing (1941).She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1951.
Used availability for Marguerite Steen's The Tower