Martha, Eric, and George

by Margery Sharp Book 3 in the The Martha Trilogy series.

First published 1964

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Ten years after leaving Paris, Martha returns as a successful painter for an exhibition of her work. Her professional achievement has depended on a life organised around art, while her son George has been raised by Eric and his devoted grandmother. The visit forces Martha to confront a relationship she once treated as a practical consequence rather than a permanent emotional claim.

George is intelligent, observant and unwilling to accept the limited role his mother has assigned herself in his life. Eric remains distant, but the child recognises both Martha’s independence and the connection between them. The final volume examines whether artistic freedom and motherhood must be opposing identities, and whether a family can be formed without conventional marriage.