Thanks for taking the time to comment. It's a very well-written book so I still recommend it. In fact, the characters being tough to swallow is really just like life!

To answer your question, I felt the author's favorite character was Lady Vivian. I've learnt more about E.M. Delafield since writing this review, and she was brought up in late Victorian times, which, as you probably know, was a very patriachal period in history. Although Delafield forged her way as a writer and clearly felt the conflict between career and marriage, there's a strong bias in her writing towards motherhood and, even more than that, *wifehood* as the best possible state for a woman. So, I think, she best liked Lady Vivian, the archetypal devoted wife who gave up her own interests and desires to support those of her husbands instead.