These novels—particularly Lucinda Brayford (1946) and the Langton quartet, beginning with The Cardboard Crown (1952)—were chronicles too of the decline of the genteel and aristocratic tradition. Of her two suitors, Toorak socialite Tony Duff (Sam Neill) and British aristocrat Captain Hugo Brayford (Barry Quin), she chooses to marry the dashing, amoral Hugo who carries her off to England and the ancestral home ‘Crittenden’. The events than focus on his relationships with his family, his friends, his marriage to a Vane family member, and WW2.

Director John Gauci uses every trick in the book to cover the relative lack of budget, cutting corners by dropping shots and employing corner sets and very basic multi-camera set-ups ( clip one). We follow the couple to England where the rest of the book takes place and the plot focuses on Hugo's family, lucindas social life which becomes somewhat of a prison, their infidelity, and WWI. painter Arthur Boyd (1920 - 1999), sculptor Guy Boyd (1923 - 1988), painter David Boyd (1924 - 2011), painter Mary Nolan (b. Wendy Hughes is without doubt one of Australia’s great beauties and has proven her ability as an actress in numerous films and long-running television series. The breakup of that affair is the most vital part of the book; from then on it peters out in a telescoping of the story of young Stephen, through a poignant bit at Cambridge, on to World War II, pacifism- and death.

He was intensely involved in family life and took a keen interest in the development of his nephews and nieces, and their families, including potter Lucy Beck (b.

The story of a beautiful woman set mainly in Melbourne, Victoria and England from the early 1900s to the Second World War.

The only working class characters that even get names are a pretty young ‘footman’, and later his wife and son. The married couple live happily in England until Hugo begins making excuses for long absences from Lucinda. As an achievement in story-telling, I found the Australian section more entertaining, as Fred Vane achieves his goal of poverty to riches, while his wife lives down the ignominy of her early married life by purchasing a place in the society she covets.

Boyd was an expatriate novelist, memoirist, and poet who spent most of his life after World War One in Europe, primarily Britain. While the book is a dynastic saga the producers have focused entirely on the eponymous Lucinda Brayford. The novel begins in the mid-1800’s, in an England ruled by tradition and a proud aristocracy, and concludes in England during World War II, with tradition replaced by expediency and pragmatism and the aristocracy besieged in their rather depleted manors by businessmen and industrialists.The family's social ambitions lead to conflicts between Lucinda and her parents over the attentions of Tony Duff. Read all Based on the novel by Martin Boyd (1946) this miniseries tells the story of many generations of a family who migrate from England to Australia and eventually back to England, suffering poverty and becoming social climbers. The poor reviews seem to compare it to either a radio or tv mini-series, but I believe the writing holds up very well and stands on its own.

She performs her level best as the beautiful and tragic Lucinda, but the truncation of the story means ultimately that the workings of Lucinda’s mind and heart remain a mystery. A completely charming novel of three generations of Australians, the Vanes and the Brayfords, who struggle to find their place in Australian 'society' around the turn of the century (pre WWI), then again in pre- and post war England (WWII). We're introduced to William Vane (lucindas grandfather) who has to move from England to Australia after he develops and unsavory reputation. Then World War I cripples and disfigures Hugo, and there's irony in Lucinda becoming the one who adopts marital infidelity as a way of life- and that with Huge's closest friend.In later scenes, he tightens shots to make half a dozen extras look like a crowd and fakes the European and English locations. First Canadian edition first printing of a very good plus hardcover with one small colour fade, in a very good dustjacket with 2 small closed tears and a crease along the top on the front cover and minor wear at the extremities.