French maid
Their union, which had been joyful as wartime subterfuge, proved fraught in the candour of peace. She found refuge in writing, with a novel about Fanny Burney, "Georgian Lady" (1958), followed by "Poet Pursued" (about Shelley, 1951) and "Victorian Love Story" (on Rossetti, 1954). Shute's marriage was not helped by losing a baby and the marriage ended after she confessed to him, during a row on New Year's Eve, 1953, that she was having an affair with their French maid.