She’s suspicious of secular utilitarians who are “impatient of legal detail, blessed by an easy moral equation. Fiona appreciates that these crises are always wrenching, always murky. With efficiency and elegance so alien to legal writing, McEwan draws us through her reasoning on several cases, such as one involving conjoined twins, whose devout Catholic parents refused to give permission for them to be separated, though doing so was the only way to save one of them. But if abusive spouses absorb the bulk of Fiona’s court time, she has also ruled famously in more wrenching matters.
Every day, she observes, “Loving promises were denied or rewritten, once easy companions became artful combatants crouching behind counsel, oblivious to the costs.” In her weary astonishment at these savage ex-lovers, one can sense the expertise McEwan gained when his own divorce and custody fight spilled out into the public arena some 15 years ago. Fiona has devoted much of her career to adjudicating bloody conflicts between once-devoted husbands and wives. At the dramatic center of the story is Fiona Maye, a mature and well-respected British High Court judge in the Family Division. The Childrens Hour (released as The Loudest Whisper in the United Kingdom) is a 1961 American drama film directed by William Wyler.The screenplay by John Michael Hayes is based on the 1934 play of the same title by Lillian Hellman.The film stars Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine, James Garner and Fay Bainter (in her final film role). “The Children Act” is too long to call a novella, but it has that focused intensity and single arc.
