Becoming Teodor: From a child of war to a visionary professor Paperback – 22 Oct. 2023

It is criminal that McCaughrean's adult books aren't better known. Fires' Astonishment, Vainglory, The Maypole - all books that have the simplicity of her writing for children translated to more complex challenging worlds (although her children's writing is utterly satisfying for adults too). The Ideal Wife has that same uncluttered feel but nevertheless weaves in a love story, a revenge plot and C18th philosophy.I've read this book a number of times, and each time I notice more about the structure and the thinking behind it. So when I try to analyse why I like it so much, I suspect I'm going to make it sound dry when in fact it's full of characters who leap off the page and stay with you. Every time, I smile at the same bits, and howl like a baby at others. And each time, I lay it down completely satisfied. Seeing the scaffolding underneath makes me respect McCaughrean's craft more, but it's not why I go back to it again and again.There was a vogue in the C18th to write books where characters illustrated specific philosophic points - such as The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia, or Candide: a genre gleefully satirised by Peacock in Nightmare Abbey. The philosophy almost always overloaded the story, and generally speaking characterisation (what characterisation?) suffered in the cause of making a point.McCaughrean starts from somewhere near there with one of her MCs a devout follower of Rousseau. In the first part of the story Robin Wooton chooses two girl orphans to take home and develop according to Rousseau's theories so that he may eventually take one of them as his wife (one of several alternatives offered in the book of what constitutes An Ideal Wife). Wooton's perversion is not the obvious C21st sexual one, but his arrogant belief that there is nothing wrong either in playing out his theories with real people, or in disposing of them according to his will later on. (Strangely like Terry Pratchett's dictum - "Sin, young man, is when you treat people as things.")Gradually, however, his simple belief in Rousseau's teaching "that the more men deviated from the state of nature, the worse off they would be" is undermined. "Real" people don't act as he'd expected; he'd thought that living on a country estate equalled going back to "the state of Nature", whereas rural society is just as complex and challenging as London. As the girls grow up, the limitations of Wooton's position become clear, and the consequences of sticking by it are tragic - merited, but tragic.Wound through the book is a powerful love story - which, by a cunning sleight of hand, McCaughrean makes both centre stage, and also almost invisible, until it's over.The plot strands become more complex as the book progresses, but McCaughrean winds them together at the end in a way that is not only neat, but emotionally satisfying.I'm sure I've not done this justice - when I pick it apart, it's complex and beautiful, but just read it, and enjoy brilliant story-telling.PS I hadn't realised that TIW was actually based on a true story - see How to Create the Perfect Wife: Britain's Most Ineligible Bachelor and His Enlightened Quest to Train the Ideal Mate.

A refreshing, funny as well as ironically sad novel. If you are interested in history, philosophy or just an easy to read period story then this is a book for you. Geraldine McClaughlin weaves the tale of and idealist, the local rector and two teenage girls so beautifully that you don't realise the meaning of the title until the very end. The characters are built up so easily that you get to know everyone without having realised it. You start to wander how it will all end. And then when it does, there is the most surprising and delightful twist.