No ordinary life

A new book about London literary marriages features NZ author Katherine Mansfield and her second husband, John Middleton Murry. Uncommon Arrangements: Seven Portraits of Married Life in London Literary Circles (1910-1939) by US author Katie Roiphe examines the relationships of such noted figures as H.G Wells, Clive and Vanessa Bell, and Lady Ottoline Morrell. Of Mansfield and Murry’s tempestuous union, Roiphe writes, “fantasy is what they were both most proficient at – ordinary life they found harder”.