Temporary Kings - post II

The reappearance of Pamela Widmerpool makes you wonder about the women across the whole series so far. Powell seems to have little difficulty describing the motivations and various different characteristics of men but women are a different matter.

With Jenkins’s own wife completely in the shadows the women characters are either mistresses, wives or oddities like the old fortune teller. Pamela is an unlikeable character because of her rudeness and her control of her beauty but she seems to be the main catalyst for various interlinks between characters and situations.

The problem is that by now, with the end of the series looming you rather wish that she would shuffle off and someone more agreeable could be introduced centre stage.

More tomorrow…