The setting, as always, is the Midlands but it differs from most of his other work in that the central characters are not middle or lower middle class, but very well-to-do, even aristocratic. The novel opens with the funeral of Edward Fielding's first wife. She has died by her own hand after years of mental illness - the first of the distractions which are implied in the title. Edward, too, has behaved in unexpected ways. He loved and cherished his wife for years, then abandoned her, and now her death leaves him free to marry Hilda, his mistress. She has escaped from a disastrous first marriage but now seems to have recovered from its effect. Beautiful and intelligent, she exerts a steadying influence on those around her, although the unexpected appearance of her first husband, a man capable of violent irrationality, shows just how vulnerable she is. The distractions of the title are of both kinds - not only madness but also amusement, recreation, that which takes the mind off trouble, and here Hilda plays an important part. Everyone seems attracted to her, not least Elizabeth, wife of the ailing Earl of Marcroft. Elizabeth makes a determined set at Hilda and her rejection is the more traumatic as she is a masterful woman used to obedience. Most of the characters turn at one time or another to Hilda in the hope she will help them over their perplexities. This subtle and deeply felt book, Stanley Middleton's fifteenth, will add to his increasing reputation as on of our leading contemporary novelists.
