WIVES LIKE US by Plum Sykes (Harper Collins), skewers Britain's rich and ridiculous "Country Princesses"

For these literally entitled British women, being a successful wife means going to fantastic lengths in a quests for excellence. “Keeping up with the Jonses” is a dire competition, where one’s brand, a uniquely individual identity, must out-class all competitors. This very social contest pits the heroines of  WIVES LIKE US against the less tasteful or virtuous, yet equally ingenious and perhaps unscrupulous wives of other estates. Of course such expectations, fantastic or not, carry the frisson of risk– failure and self undoing. 

The race begins with the unfortunate withdrawal of beautiful Tata, a former London PR whiz, from her Monkton Bottom Manor House to her smaller renovated 6-bedroom Coach House. Her removal, reluctantly shared by her daughter, Minty, and Ian, her strategically savvy butler is a fall in status. For Tata it’s a tactical necessity. Not just distant, her husband’s taken an American bikini designer to Venice! Hurt by his inexplicable behavior, she intends to shock him. Still, she knows his life, like hers,has not so easy. 

As Ian explains in WIVES LIKE US, Tata’s RICH HUSBAND “toiled at the coal face four days a week in swanky office suites in London, building cash mountains which were rapidly eroded by school fees, horses, holidays, housekeepers, nannies, gardners, tutors and masseurs, as well as left-field experts, like cold-water swimming coaches, shamans or equinine behavioral specialists.” RICH WIVES quietly dropped the careers they had briefly enjoyed in order to commt to their true vocation, as Modern Ladies of the Manor or ‘Country Princesses.’”

Tata’s crisis must be remedied, vows Ian, self-imposed or not. Will “The Queen of the Bottoms” recover her husband and manor house? The race is on for happiness and ascendent brand shows! Tata rallies with her best friends, Sophie Thomson and Fernanda-Ovington-Williams. Though each has their own heart-aches, they have Tata’s back.  Then a glamorous American divorcee, who’s inherited a neighboring estate, unexpectedly offers Tata friendship. Many questions hang in the balance. Is her status finally upward bound?  Will Ian’s passion for Gucci loafers be justified?  How do Manhattanites cope with a toxic moat?

WIVES LIKE US is at once a testament to the power of self-delusion among the moneyed and fantastic vicarious fun!  Imagine a chic trunk show of impossibly luxurious silk pajamas in a gorgeous venue (floral bedecked country house or verdant glen) with unimaginable signature sweets? Eccentric designers and clever staff offer rare pieces from luxury labels, not yet released scents, and sports–all signalling original status and style. Country Princesses know making it exalted and memorable is their  privilege and challenge.  All hold signature events for charitable causes, where husbands, children, and pets may coincidentally benefit. Much of Tata’s activity is to forget her own miseries in the happiness of her friends, which also include commoners, such as Ian,a gentleman farmer, or her newly entitled American friend.. Like the heroine in Austen’s Northanger Abbey, Tata believes Commoners (like her) are often more than equals. Character has little to do with money–but who would do without it?.

In the entitled landscape of WIVES LIKE US, money is just a beginning. Designed “skirmishes” show what these women are made of, “test their mettle.” Tally-Ho for those deserving well-turned out women with dreams of perfection and often deferred happiness. 

SW

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In the U.S., without a tradition of the “divine right of kings,” conspicuous consumption arouses less humor than anger at an unfair economic system.In a recent version of  Truman Capote’s Swans, about elite American women tastemakers in the 1940-60s, there was an attitude of judgement about the women, instead of Capote’s “tongue-in-cheek” humor. The show seemed to ignore the historical function of fashion in the U.S. economy, especially in the crucial post war years. The participation of these women as fashionplates was patriotic. They worked with designers to create industries around fashion, that became accessible to average housewives and working women.    

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