The House of Women

A dark family drama that begins in 1968 and spans 15 years, The House of Women is the most recent British import from the late Catherine Cookson (The Bondage of Love; A Ruthless Need; etc.). Emma is the stern, feisty 74-year-old matriarch of Bramble House; also living there are her hypochondriac daughter, Victoria; her granddaughter, Lizzie, Lizzie's monstrous husband, Len, and their teenaged daughter, Peggy, who is impregnated by Andrew, a local boy, whom she marries. As the years pass, allegiances shift, illicit romances flare up and characters are moved to acts of violence and worse. It's an absorbing spectacle for those who don't mind a bit of melodrama. (June)