Just lovely. I'll never understand why so many people go to Mallorca only for partying, when it is so amazingly beautiful.

Oh, Chopin and Sand! Yay for early gender-bending couples!

Well, quoth I, while the novel is indeed a great one, it IS a novel and the Graves parts (he's only a minor character in it anyway) struck me as very much what happens if a fanfic author has an OTP (in Barker's case Sassoon/Owen) and doesn't want anyone to be as important or shock, even more important and connected to one of her guys, so she bashes that annoying person TPTB Real Life provided.

Hee. I'm reading it just now and it is a really good book, although I must admit that the real life circumstances of Sassoon and Owen's insta-friendship/mutual crush/epic romance/presumably all of the above really look like a romantic screenplay gone wild, so I can see why Barker would be tempted to concentrate on that. (As for Graves, he mostly strikes me as incredibly pragmatic to Sassoon's idealistic frustration so far. Does he get more dickish later on?)

I hope you and your mother continue to have fun and be able to relax somewhat. Don't let the Peugeot overwhelm you!