In Brief
Lizzie and Frances were twins. They had all the conspiratorial closeness of twins, together forming part of a unit, a joint wholeness - or at least that was the way Lizzie saw it. Lizzie was the one who had everything: husband, children, a flourishing business, and the most beautiful house in Langworth. Frances had a solitary life in London, running her own small travel firm, and progressing through a sequence of unsatisfactory men. Lizzie felt sorry for Frances and worried about her, but still she thought that everything was - vaguely - all right as long as Frances could share in her complete and satisfying life. Then Frances, suddenly and surprisingly, announced she wasn't coming home to Lizzie for Christmas. She was going away, to Spain. Lizzie's world began to tilt. She had always known that Frances kept a small part of herself separate but her Christmas defection seemed overwhelmingly threatening to their unity. As Frances's future promised to change into something exciting and unexpected, so Lizzie's began to deteriorate as Britain's economic crises ate into her ideal lifestyle. Now it seemed that Frances could be the twin to have everything.

When Joanna Trollope discussed A Spanish Lover in an interview with Michael Sims, she said, "I wanted to hang it on the peg of twins, and the complexity of twins, and the way if you put a pair of twins together they make an incredibly whole person. But I wanted very much to write a love story and explore the idea of what happens when you try and make a myth into a reality. It was a real cliché, this one. Cold, inhibited, Protestant woman from the North unlocked by warm Catholic man from the South. And I thought, let's see what happens if you put it to the test." Publishers Weekly said: “With sparkling dialogue Trollope manages to bring all her characters, adults and children, to full life while managing to bestow unforgettable glimpses of Spain in all its melancholy and magnificence.”

A Spanish Lover earned the Los Angeles Times Book Review “Recommended Title” 1997 and it was nominated for the London Express Book of the Year” - a book prize which celebrates readability. In the Washington Post Book World: Sunday December 7th 1997, Jonathan Yardley recommended A Spanish Lover with enthusiasm.

For Discussion
1. TWINS: The unity of twins, the meaning they have for each other and their intense bond with one another presents unique challenges. On page eighteen Frances thinks…. “We are like 2 pieces of a jigsaw, we have to fit together, and to do that properly we can’t be exactly the same shape.” But Lizzie feels differently as she finds it so hard to deal with Frances’ new life: “…But what about me? I think I’m a natural twin, I feel one…”. • Barbara thinks that it is awful that she is having twins. (Page 28) “Because you can never be quite your own person, if you are a twin, because it stunts your relationships with anyone else because you can’t ever be quite free of the other person.” Frances declares (page 45), “I’m your sister, but I’m not you.” How far are these comments a reasonable reaction? Make a list of all the good and bad things about being a twin. • The bond between Frances and Lizzie is shown in several ways. Lizzie felt incompetent and incomplete when Frances returned to London after Alistair’s birth and Frances has a dream about Lizzie crying (Page 165) and has to telephone her. William (Page 87) muses about his daughters on Christmas morning; he wonders if “Frances was the bossed and Lizzie the bosser? What other kind of examples can you find to illustrate the interdependent nature of their relationship? • By the end of the book the twins’ identity and understanding of each other has changed. Frances has declared, “I’m not a sort of honey pot she can just stick a finger in for a lick when she fancies it. I’m me and I’m free…” whilst Lizzie worries that she “…. may have damaged something between us that won’t ever be mended.” How do you think Frances and Lizzie will develop their new relationship and do you agree with Robert when he says, “As far as you are concerned, I reckon you’ll always feel the twitch upon the thread.”

2. LIZZIE & FRANCES: Lizzie and Frances lead very different lives. Lizzie is married to Robert. They have (Page15) “an expanding business, an appropriate house (large but not boastful), four clever and strong-minded children, a rising local profile.” Frances is first met through Lizzie’s eyes; Lizzie feels that her own life is “richly domestic and effective” whilst Frances’s is “a free but lonely one (Page 22)… toiling away in a mediocre travel company and returning at night to a gaunt flat in Battersea which she shared …and then there was Nicholas…so wrong…” (Page 13) However, as the first chapters unfold both Lizzie and Frances are shown as so much more. By the end of the novel both Lizzie and Frances are very different to the characters that you met at the beginning. Frances is a mother, living in a foreign country and embracing with determination the choices that she has made. Lizzie is almost poised to find herself, rather as Frances was at the beginning of the story. Lizzie has lost everything that gave her self- worth: “Areas had plainly got on with themselves more than adequately without her.” (Page 349)

• Both Lizzie and Frances have pangs of guilt about themselves and each other. How much do you think this part of being a twin and to what extent is this is a reaction often attributed to women?

• As Frances fall deeply in love with Luis, Lizzie’s world begins to fall apart. The warmth of Spain and the richness of Frances’s surroundings; her happiness “that is close to rapture” (Page 128) is in stark contrast to the rain of Bath, the “dreadful, impotent feelings…. (Page 141) and “sick apprehension”(Page 183). Discuss how Lizzie and her family react. Notice the differences between the generations.

• Trace the beginnings of the “shining confidence” (Page 188) that everyone sees in Frances. Examine the way that Luis and Frances fall in love. How do you think this differs from a British love affair? Is the affair any different because both people are older?

• Balancing the constraints of domestic and work life is part of modern life for women. Lizzie has always done this but now Westondale challenges her further. Discuss how Lizzie copes with this. Do you feel that more could be done to help women who work?

• Frances’s business continues to expand and she acquires more self-esteem in the process. Examine the different ways that Frances responds to the challenges of a new adventure, compared to Lizzie, and list the differences.

• Lizzie’s world continues to disintegrate as she loses The Grange, her interest in the Gallery and, finally, she finds Robert about to kiss Jenny. She feels “the lowest of the low” (Page 235). Is this a fair assessment? How could Lizzie have made matters easier for herself? Was this an inevitable outcome to the situation?

• Just when matters couldn’t seem to get any worse Lizzie learns that Frances is pregnant. She felt her “wits scattered like a burst pillow” (Page 304) as she wrestled with the pain she feels. Do you feel sorry for Lizzie? How important is this episode in changing Lizzie?

• Frances, for her part, realises her own vulnerability and, on page 321, Frances examines the motives for her actions. Discuss how wise Frances is in making the decision to stay in Spain. Examine her behaviour and compare it to Lizzie.

• At the end of the book both Lizzie and Frances are ready to build new lives. Imagine you are either Lizzie or France and discuss what you would do next.

3. BARBARA AND WILLIAM: have an unusual marriage. Barbara left William — to “break out” (Page 35) for a time and, to Robert’s mind, she displays “bossiness and… phoney half-baked feminism (Page 37).” But Barbara shows hidden depths and, by the end of the book, she has left William for independence of a new kind. Her relationship with her family is cuttingly honest and she will often surprise them by her perception. William, with his “bumbling benevolence” (Page 84), loves Barbara for being the mother of his children and was completely and intimately involved with the twins. He sought comfort from Juliet and proclaims at the end of the book that he is “the original oyster.” (Page 343)

• Do you think that Barbara and William’s marriage had a detrimental effect on Lizzie and Frances?

• Compare the difference between William and Juliet and Frances and Luis.

• Barbara and William’s marriage went through several interludes. Look through the book and discuss these. How true to life do you think they were? 4. ROBERT & LUIS: Robert reflects on his success with astonished pride” (Page 15) and it is poignant when he has to accept that “life deals a nasty” (Page 135) His exasperation and bewilderment at Lizzie’s reactions lead, inevitably, to an almost naïve indiscretion with Jenny. His grumpy, stoical and loyal fight to restore family life - “ I want to make thing happen now. I want to move things.” (Page 354) — are all conducted “from a seat in the stalls” (page 356) Luis is the opposite. Luis feels “the notion of a life of rhythm, discipline and order seemed…. better able to ensure a general level of happiness than the seemingly progressive pursuit of self-fulfilment.” (Page 115) He is mistrustful of women and, even when passionately in love with Frances, is rigid in his own belief that children ruin relationships. He declares: (Page 177) “ We are a stupid age… we are so mechanistic, so scientific, that we don’t pay attention to our instincts and we are so wrong.”

• Examine the way that Robert reacts to a crisis. Talk about his emotions and then discuss how Luis would have reacted in the same situation.

• Do you think that Robert is more trustworthy than Luis? How far do you think their behaviour is due to the differences in culture?

• Luis appears a calculating and opinionated lover but he behaves completely out of character when Antonio is born. Why do you think this happens?

• Robert and Luis both love their women very much. Both are often puzzled by their behaviour. Look through the book and make a list of the way they react. How different are they to each other?

• Luis gives the book its name but how far do you think he is responsible for the changes that take place. Imagine that he is removed from the story. What do you think would happen instead?

5. FAMILY: In the dynamics of the family that surround Lizzie and Frances, the reader sees how each generation react to each other and to the situations they meet. Channel 4’s website - www.channel4.com/health/microsites/F/family/21st/index.html says: “Once upon a time, society put its fingers in its ears and squeezed its eyes tightly shut. There was only one acceptable definition of a family and that was a married couple with one or more children. Gymslip mums, single-parent families and children brought up out of wedlock simply didn't exist. Modern society has done away with the fairytale…”

• What does family expect of its members? How does it constrain them and, by the same token, support them?

• How far is Frances breaking free from family expectation?

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