The Rose and The Yew Tree is an intense inexperienced story about a mysterious unscrupulous scoundrel…. He has won the V. C. in the war, and after it sets out to win a seat in the election in the Conservative interest, not because he believes in Conservatism but because it suits his ambition at the moment. He abandons politics immediately after winning the seat in order to ruin the life of an innocent, aristocratic but extremely tough young girl. [His story] takes a very long time to tell, and it is told (via a first-person medium) with the self-confidence of someone who is perhaps not quite sure of himself. Twists are added to the story in desperation; but no satisfactory whole merges—only a collection of twists. Isabella is an interesting character, and Miss Westmacott may well write a much better book than this one day. (p. 28)

Robert...