An audio book. Until I read reviews I didn't realise that there were extracts from a character's unpublished book, legends accompanying photographs, etc in the exhibition, etc. There are lists of events for each year ("the happenny removed from circulation" etc). Action switches between 2 timelines - 2018- and 1970-
In 2018 Veronica, 70, is previewing an exhibition of her photos. Her last photo was in 1984. In 2007 she had a brain tumour operation and fears she's forgotten things. The tumor's returned. She doesn't have long to live. She fears that her judgement is affected. Worse, she fears blindness. Her lover Leonie is dead. The exhibition's been curated by Erica, Leone's niece. There's lots about V's aesthetics of photography. V and Erica discuss photos. Erica asks if V has any of the private photos of battered women. Erica asks about (queries the success of) the first wave of feminism. In return, V asks about Erica and Marcus's lifestyle - they have a child. and Marcus ensures that the couple have "us time", but Erica deals with most childcare issues. When V takes Erica on a march, Erica is taken to a police station. They go to Greenham common. Erica's pregnant but isn't sure she wants the child. V tells Erica that she's Leonie's daughter, she tries to convince Erica by showing her photos. V's convinced she didn't let L die - she can't recall the details, but she deduces from photos and tells Erica about them. V dies soon after the exhibition opens. Erica has the child and calls it Leonie.
1970 - V, a naive newspaper photographer, moves in with staunch, loud, feminist L (a writer, but she can't get her books published). L gets an abortion. They attend a protest about Miss World and a strike about equal pay. V's close to her father. Her mother's dead. L rants at unreformed males and isn't impressed at V's selling-out. V stays for 7 years, becoming well known as a naturalistic photographer - Mother Teresa, Mrs Thatcher, etc. When Leonie becomes pregnant too late to have an abortion, she offers the child to V, who's not interested. A good photo matters more to her than a child - or a relationship. Leonie gives the child to her childless sister, Ursula, in such a way that the NHS thinks it's Ursula's child. V and L visit Greenham Common, a place that helps to focus the feminist cause. V moves out. L becomes a lecturer in the States. When she's in the UK in 1984, V photographs her in Ursula's house. Erica is a toddler. L tell V that Erica's her daughter. During the photoshot L dies. Because of the photo that's released, people think that V took photos instead of trying to save L. V escapes to Canada, returns to become a lecturer, invests in property that she rents to deserving women.
The writing's not always tight (e.g. the section about the worst time of the developing process for the lights to come on), the plot hinges on some unlikely events, and for me the examples of L's "Dear John" writing go on too long.
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