2025
Having finished the first draft of my new novel, Venetian Friends and Lovers, some months ago, I am now enjoying the necessary editing process prior to publication. What is especially enjoyable this time is working on the characters in this very character-driven novel. Pains Hill was also character driven - as I believe most novels should be - in that the creation of the garden was due to the imagination and obsession of the main protagonist, Charles Hamilton, while the actions of other characters, Millie, Henry Fox, Jane, Tom etc. resulted from their own personalities and desires. Even so, with Pains Hill I was constrained by the fact that Hamilton was a real historical figure with real time-lines so I did not have a free hand in his creation. Moreover, the garden itself took centre stage in the novel’s narrative, so the characters had to follow the garden’s timeline and development.
With Venetian Friends and Lovers, there are no such constraints. I have a totally free hand to create the characters and do with them what I wish, and that is what I am finding so enjoyable. At my age, I have such a diverse wealth of experience to draw on and appreciate how complex humans are, how endlessly fascinating, how full of surprises, both good and bad.
With Pains Hill I didn’t have the space to explore the characters at length. If I had done, the book would have been more like 600 pages rather than the existing, rather long 460 pages. One character I loved creating (a totally fictitious character) was Verity who took on her own unexpectedly strong personality. The novel does contain undertones which I wonder if readers notice? For example, how Millie’s innocent enthusiasm is an echo of her tragic mother’s naivety and recklessness or how Constance’s aristocratic French marriage would probably result in her offspring losing their heads in the French Revolution!
In Venetian Friends and Lovers, I am playing with far fewer characters, all very different, and during modern times, set against the spellbinding background of Venice, which of course is a character in itself.
If you would like a signed copy of Painshill with or without a personal dedication, please email me at margaretbuntrock@gmail.com Cost for the paperback, including postage, is just the usual £11.99 (UK only).
Otherwise Pains Hill is available to buy online from Amazon and Waterstones, and from bookshops. The Kindle version is available from Amazon.
Excerpts from Pains Hill
“Is there a straight path back to your house, Mr. Hamilton?” asked Sir William. “We have wandered about your park in an exceedingly wavering manner.”
“Yes, there is a fairly straight, linear path we can take back to the house. But the garden is designed to be enjoyed through a series of convolutions, so that you will be suddenly surprised by the unexpected.”
“I prefer straight lines, simple and direct, non of these crooked zigzags which are most disagreeable. I have a singular aversion to zigzags.”
“It is a new fashion, uncle,” interrupted Henry.
Sir William snorted, then said, “Let’s get back to the house.”
— Pains Hill (Chapter 10)
“Suddenly, Charles felt something on his knee, his left knee. At first he hoped he had imagined it, but then he felt it again, only more strongly, a pressure on his silk breeches that could only be a hand, beneath the table, pressing down on his upper leg. He wished it could be his right leg and hoped for a moment that perhaps the comely Constance, sitting on his right, could be able to reach over far enough to place her hand on his left leg, but no, it was impossible, and the only person whose hand it could be was the older sister, Verity. He decided to ignore it, did not even look at her, and stared fixedly ahead.
As Sir William broke off from his paean to Marlborough and raised his wine glass, Henry Fox again attempted to advance his friend’s standing.
“Charles has planted a vineyard at his Pains Hill estate.”
“A vineyard, good gracious?” spluttered Sir William. “That sounds very foolhardy.”
Several of the other guests around the table tittered with laughter.
“The Romans had vineyards in England. I do not see why I should not be able to make a passable wine,” stated Charles refusing to feel chastened.
“I think you would be better to turn your land to husbandry.”
“I have a farm at Pains Hill, naturally, with cattle and sheep, cornfields and orchards.”
“And he is making a magnificent garden,” interjected Henry. ”He has flooded fields to create a lake and islands. And he has acquired statues in Italy. Including one of Bacchus. It is the tallest Greek statue in England.”
Charles felt the pressure on his left leg tighten, as fingers gripped his flesh beneath his breaches.
— Pains Hill (Chapter 8)
Jane, being a good historian, knew the power she wielded, the potential for manipulation, the creative process that takes place behind the most seemingly objective interpretation of facts and events, the selection and arrangement of evidence in the weaving of a narrative fit for an audience. For the duration of her Painshill contract, Charles Hamilton was hers, she possessed him and she liked the feelings of omnipotence her work gave her. And while she worked alone, she was not alone, others, though long dead, inhabited her realm and were her companions on her research journey, and she was the ring-master.
— Pains Hill (Chapter 5)
Slowly and silently he emerged from the trees, creeping towards the seated figure, approaching from behind, unseen, the hefty wooden weapon in his hands. The hunched figure was intent on watching the water, bowed over and beginning to feel stiff from sitting still for so long.
The man swung the wooden weapon high in the air and brought it down hard on the head of the seated figure with a crushing force. The seated figure toppled to the ground. The swans continued to glide across the water.
— Pains Hill (Chapter 27)
