Clay Country

In the early 1800s, the Killigrew clay works dominates the little Cornwall town of St. Austell, providing the principal source of employment and conferring special status on the Tremayne family. In following the fortunes of the generation that will seek other paths and break with tradition, prolific romance writer Summers (aka Jean Saunders and Jean Innes) focuses on Morwena, the daughter who has married the upper-class heir to the clay works. Morwena's union with Ben Killigrew is passionate and sensuous; the reader is treated to descriptions of their pleasures at frequent intervals. For Rowena, there are some social consequences of ""marrying up,'' but they pale before the avalanche of disaster that descends on the town with the collapse of Killigrew Clay. Summers conveys the earthy, gritty character of England's West Country people, a quality that is the basis of their survival. The reader, however, will wish for a less-contrived ending and fewer repetitious descriptions. (February)