The Quality of Love

'[A] rather delicious and sympathetic book... the pleasure of The Quality of Love lies in the details, in the sometimes startling small print of the sisters' relationships... all her characters are sketched so effortlessly; you see them, and you even smell them (Orwell reeks of sardines)... there wasn't a moment when I didn't relish being in their company' Rachel Cooke, Observer

'The sisters’ charms and talent for friendship are evident, as various stars of the postwar European intellectual firmament pass through the book’s pages. Most of all, though, it is enriched by the correspondence between the twins – for, ultimately, the great love story is theirs alone' Telegraph

'An irresistible family memoir... gripping, tactfully told and moving' Lucy Beckett, TLS (Books of the Year)

'Lives at the intellectual heart of the mid-20th century... Part of the book’s fascination lies in the domestic side of these intellectuals... Oh, what lives they both led!' Spectator

'An enthralling insight into the intellectual life of Europe as it struggled to recover from the Second World War' Tony Rennell, Daily Mail (Best Biographies of 2024)

'Ariane Bankes supplies a succinct and affectionate portrait of the interconnected literary worlds inhabited by her mother, Celia, and aunt, Mamaine, who, while hobnobbing with everyone from George Orwell and Cyril Connolly to Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre, remained distinctive personalities in their own right' D. J. Taylor, TLS Books of the Year

 '[A] deftly written memoir' Literary Review

'[A] highly entertaining and informative book' Sue Gaisford, The Tablet 

'Taking us from the high bohemia of 1930s London to the European intellectual scene of the 1940s and 1950s, Ariane Bankes weaves a story as spirited and alluring as the Paget sisters at its centre' Antonia Fraser

'Ariane Bankes has painted a wonderfully rich and lovingly nuanced portrait of her mother and aunt, devoted twins, whose lives and loves traversed the intellectual currents and crises of mid twentieth-century Europe’ Rupert Christiansen

‘A sophisticated, cultured cast of writers and thinkers are convincingly woven together through the fascination of the Paget twins, who are the magnetic centre of the story... The Quality of Love conjures a treasure trove of characters who were at the heart of their age’ Virginia Nicholson, author of Among the Bohemians

‘The Quality of Love illuminates an intoxicating, almost lost world as never before, but its emotional heartbeat lies in the indissoluble trajectory of sibling love running through the lives of the magnetic Paget twins’ Juliet Nicolson, journalist and author of A House Full of Daughters

'Bankes' memoir brings these beautiful, vivacious and smart women to life with tenderness, intelligence and joie de vivre. And it's an absolute must-read for any fans of Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love - this is the real-life version!' Lucy Scholes, Prospect

‘A whirlwind of a biography … far stranger than fiction’ The Lady

'A fascinating slice of social history seen through the lives of two dynamic, glamorous sisters. The Quality of Love also provides intriguing revelations about some of the great thinkers of the mid-twentieth century – George Orwell, Arthur Koestler, and Albert Camus – who were dazzled by the Paget twins. Hugely enjoyable' Julia Parry, author of award-winning The Shadowy Third

'The record of their lives is frankly extraordinary: a quality shared by Bankes’s book... The book’s a dazzler’ TLS

'It's a wonderfully painless way of learning about literature, and so well written that it whizzes by' The Tablet

'A work of art as well as a fount of tantalising gossip' Michael Scammell