Antonia Forest fans

Oh, and I think Edwin's a bastard because he's a bastard. I agree there are inherent tensions in the situation - I wouldn't like to be a Guardian-reader in the Marlow household, and I think there certainly is a chippy "Angry Man Who's Not As Young As He Used To Be" vibe about Edwin (he's pretty much a contemporary with Jimmy Porter, whom I also always regarded as a complete git; I've never managed to sit through Look Back In Anger)- but you don't necessarily have to formalise it in class-conflict terms: his first marriage had also failed comprehensively, and the children are distinctly nervous around him. I think he's one of those blokes with a hair-trigger temper and insufficient inhibitions about letting it show, and that however decent the rest of the human package is anyone who's seen the temper in action and who is potentially within it's reach treats him as though they were walking across an active volcano, and for good reason. Beyond that, one can speculate about where the anger came from (he's quarrelled with his only sister, hasn't he?) but the fact of the lethal rage bubbling away and just about kep under the lid most of the time is there in plain sight. I think if Karen gets out of this one without major pschological damage she'll be lucky. Fortunately, her Lawrie-eque level of self-absorbption may protect her.