No one, probably, ever felt himself to be more alone in the world than our old friend the Duke of Omnium, when the Duchess died.

Those are the opening words of the book, and I could hardly believe them. I don’t normally ‘give away’ much of the plot or action of any book, for fear that I might spoil it for other potential readers, but lots of people seem to have watched the serialisation of the books so it’ll be no surprise for them.

Whether you love or hate Lady Glencora, and I swung between both, you have to admit that it’s an unusually sudden way to learn of a character’s death. No long dragged out will she, won’t she for him. He couldn’t be more different from Mr Popular Sentiment (Dickens), I actually thought to myself – ‘this reminds me of Psycho’ – because when that film was first released in cinemas the audiences were aghast that Janet Leigh had been done to death so early on in the film, as much as the way of her going.

Anyway, this book is about how the Duke of Omnium copes with his children now that their mother is dead. He has always been quite a remote father to his two sons and one daughter and Glencora kept a lot from him. So when he realises that his late wife had been encouraging a relationship between their daughter and what he regards as a very unsuitable young man, the Duke is not pleased. He plans to marry his daughter off to just about anyone else. The whole situation reminds him of the beginnings of his relationship with Glencora, and he wants a similar outcome for his daughter.

His sons are causing him even more worry through gambling but he manages to cope with that more easily and sees the loss of £70,000 as cheap at the price – if it cures his heir of gambling.

This is the last in the Palliser series and although Trollope is usually really good at tying up the loose ends of characters, he didn’t quite do it here, so I can see why Angela Thirkell decided to write about some of the same families, albeit a few generations ahead. The book didn’t end the way I expected it to because at one point the Duke is described surprisingly, as being a man who is susceptible to feminine frills and petticoats, and I thought that that was a bit of a clue that he would be replacing poor Glencora fast, as so many men seem to do, but I was wrong.

You’ll probably have noticed that I’ve been a bit vague on names here, that’s because I finished reading the book over a week ago and I read it on my Kindle and although I have a copy of the book – I can’t find it – the usual situation for me I’m afraid, I saw it recently! Anyway, I think the children are Silverbridge, the heir to the dukedom, Lady Mary, and was the ‘spare’ son called Gerald?

I did enjoy the book but Phineas Finn, Phineas Redux and The Prime Minister were my favourites in the series. Yes, they’re much more political, but not in a boring way and they are full of insights into human nature, an education in themselves.