Weekend Read #010: WIVES LIKE US by Plum Sykes
A comedy of extremely posh manners
Hello again!
Welcome back to the Weekend Read! If you’re new here, this is where we highlight available IP that has been overlooked by Hollywood buyers, or talk about books that are worth reading because they’re in the current zeitgeist.
“Everything the Country Princesses did was news: other women wanted to read about them, dress like them, be them. This was swiftly followed by a desire to judge them, criticise them and, if possible, hate them, which made them feel miles better about not being one of them after all.”
When I was Media Rights Coordinator at a talent agency, one of the agents I worked under advised me to never take on a book with a vicar in it, because that meant the story was “too British” for the American market. I think when a lot of people imagine a “British” film or TV program, they’re still thinking of some quaint, low-stakes PBS family drama or mystery that’s the perfect white noise to fall asleep to at your grandma’s house.
Well, WIVES LIKE US lulls us into thinking that in the first few pages, and then spends the rest of the book taking us on a delightful rollercoaster ride of alternating high and low stakes. The scene is set in the picturesque Cotswolds, home to “The Bottoms” - a neighborhood where grand historic and nouveau-riche estates are locked in a cutthroat competition to be the most effortlessly ~country chic~, sometimes to very extreme ends. Here is the official synopsis:
Welcome to the rose-strewn county of Oxfordshire, and the tony Cotswold villages of Little Bottom, Middle Bottom, Great Bottom, and Monkton Bottom, recently annexed by a glittering new breed of female: the Country Princess. Following a ghastly row about a missing suite of diamonds, Tata Hawkins has flounced out of Monkton Bottom Manor with her daughter, Minty, and Executive Butler Ian Palmer in tow, decamping to The Old Coach House to teach her husband, Bryan, a lesson.
But things don’t go to plan. Bryan disappears to Venice with a bikini designer; Selby Fairfax, the glamorous American divorcée who has inherited the beautiful estate next door—Great Bottom Park—is refusing Tata’s overtures at friendship; Tata’s two best friends, Sophie Thompson and Fernanda Ovington-Williams, are distracted by their own problems; worst of all, Ian has nowhere to store his collection of vintage Gucci loafers. Will Tata ever return to the comforts of the Manor? Will Sophie’s husband start appreciating her? Will Fernanda ever find a replacement Manny for her friendless son, Luca? Will Selby believe in love again? With the help of a pig farmer-ess moonlighting as a Personal Assistant, a male model moonlighting as a stable hand, a London barrister moonlighting as a gentleman farmer, and a hypochondriac American tech mogul lying in a hospital bed, is there any hope that Ian can restore harmony to The Bottoms?
WIVES LIKE US is currently available, and is handled by Luke Janklow at Janklow & Nesbit Associates.
“It’s very posh to let your garden run riot. Only bourgeois people like me prefer everything neat and tidy.”
I brings this book up now for two reasons. The first, it’s really just the perfect, juicy drama to take along on a summer weekend. But the main reason is because I think (as an American, admittedly) that this is the perfect kind of ~British~ story to enchant audiences in many markets. WHITE LOTUS has whetted our appetites for ‘rich people behaving badly in a beautiful place,’ and in a culture where people are sick of seeing celebrities flaunting their wealth, I think a story where influencers of all kinds are lambasted would be very welcome. And while it does take place in a very niche community, Plum Sykes does an excellent job of illustrating and explaining every particular object and complicated social dance. The result is a glamorous sort of safari, that also has some poignant lessons on envy, consumption, and greed.
As always, would love to hear your thoughts!
Best,
TIP
See you next time!