The English Understand Wool

 

The English Understand Wool / Helen DeWitt
New York: New Directions, c2022.
69 p.

I kept seeing this novella mentioned by book bloggers and instagrammers so was delighted to find it in a library collection. I read it in one go; it's only 69 pages, but a pleasure from beginning to end. 

17 yr old Marguerite has been raised with strict standards. She lives in Marrakech, had music lessons, bridge lessons, knows clothing and is taught to avoid mauvais ton at all costs. She's also been taught to treat one's servants well, give them opportunities and pay well, and to give them the month of Ramadan as a paid month off. During which time she and Maman travel to England for wool tweed from the Outer Hebrides, Ireland for linen, and Paris to their dressmaker. But this year, their Ramadan travels do not follow the usual routine. 

Maman disappears, and Marguerite is the centre of a press frenzy that leads to a publishing deal for her tell-all. But just as the English understand wool, Marguerite understands that she must take care of herself first. Her lessons from Maman serve her well. 

This story was clever, really funny, and full of digs at publishing culture and the super rich. "The English Understand Wool" is both the first and last line of the story, and this reliance on always getting the best according to the circumstance is a theme throughout. There is discussion of fabrics, fashion and dressmaking as well, and the Thai seamstress set up in Paris by Maman plays a key role - men never think of a seamstress. This was an entertaining read, one that I could definitely reread and enjoy as much as the first time. 

Elizabeth LeMarchand's Unhappy Returns

 

Unhappy Returns / Elizabeth LeMarchand
NY: Walker & Co, 1983, c1977.
175 p.

After reading the first three installments of the Pollard & Toye mysteries, I said that I'd take a break. But then I found volume 9 in the series at a thrift store so just had to read it! 

I think that LeMarchand improved as she went along; this volume has much less of Pollard sitting down and going over the facts of the case, a technique I found a bit plodding in the first few. But like the first few, this is set in the countryside and a small community is drawn sharply and fully. 

Two small parishes in Pyrford and Abercombe are amalgamating, and a new vicar is installed. The housekeeper to the former eccentric vicar, Ethel Ridd, accuses the locals of theft when she says that a jewelled medieval chalice is missing from the smaller church. Shortly after, she's found dead in the vicarage. 

Scotland Yard is called in, and Pollard & Toye find themselves in the midst of a muddle, with red herrings everywhere and no clear motive in sight. Plus, is the medieval chalice real or was it imagined by the strange Mrs. Ridd? With a shifty shopkeeper, a petrified teenager, more murders/attempted suicides, and church drama, there is a lot going on here. The story twists and turns and the ending is a bit abrupt and bonkers. There is a bang of a conclusion but no real denouement to follow - a couple more pages to the story might have tied it up more neatly. 

However, I really enjoyed reading this one. I found it lively and entertaining, puzzling with hints of humour at times and skullduggery at others. I would read more of the series now if I come across any copies!

Queen of the Tambourine

 

The Queen of the Tambourine / Jane Gardam 
London: Europa, 2007, c1991.
256 p.

I've meant to read this for ages! And I found a nice Europa edition recently, so I dug right in. This is an epistolary novel, one of my favourite techniques. In this story, Eliza Peabody begins writing letters to her neighbour Joan, who has suddenly left her husband and grown children to travel the continent alone. None of these letters are ever answered. 

Eliza reveals herself in these letters; she's bossy and opinionated, and we realize that the neighbours often avoid her for it. She just doesn't fit in. She's isolated in the suburbs and very unhappy. Then her diplomat husband Henry leaves her. And this is the moment that tips her over the edge. As the letters continue, she becomes more and more unbalanced, until we aren't sure if what she's saying is true or something she's imagined. Are the people she talks about even real? Does she really have two dogs? And what is she going to do about it all? 

People in her community seem concerned about her, they try to talk to her but her understanding of things is not always on the level. The book spirals down, but then up again. The reader's journey alongside Eliza can be confusing - I lost the plot a few times - but by the end it's been made much clearer. This is fragmentary at times, and a bit frenzied. But Eliza is a great character, acerbic and observant, and there are some very funny bits. Her descriptions of the neighbours and other locals are not tempered by social niceties, and her one-liners can be hilarious. 

While I didn't absolutely love it, there were touching parts as well as humour, and you can tell that Gardam is in full control of her narrative. It's a powerful look at women's lives as they age and try to find their place. Here's another woman who has no children or husband, but unlike my last read, Eliza doesn't despair. She may lose touch with reality for a while, but she is firmly ensconsced in a community and comes out the other side alright. I'll remember her acid commentary for a while. 

Jumping the Queue

 

Jumping the Queue / Mary Wesley 
London: Penguin, 1988, c1983.
208 p.

I picked this book up recently while thrifting, and decided to read it immediately. Mary Wesley is hit and miss for me; there are intriguing bits to her stories, great settings and lots of realistic, complex female characters. But there are also outdated social mores, particularly when it comes to gender relationships. 

This book has flaws of that sort, from taboo sexual relationships to rape that's glossed over. Without those elements I would have liked this much more. The story is fascinating - Matilda Poliport is a widow, with four grown children whom she's mostly estranged from. She's described on the back cover as "elderly" -- she's actually just on this side of sixty. 

Matilda has decided she has nothing to live for. No husband, children who don't care about her much, well, I guess she has no role in life if not a wife and mother. She has a lovely cottage in the country, nice community, a favourite goose, and time to do anything at all. But what she decides to do is to take some pills and swim out to sea. 

She is foiled in her plans by a rowdy group of young adults on the beach, and in turn she foils the suicide attempt of a man on the bridge, who turns out to be the matricide on the lam that has been in all the papers. She takes Hugh home, and between them they spark something in each other again. They start living, Matilda going up to London briefly, Hugh figuring out how he can leave the country discretely. He doesn't ask for details of Matilda's life and she doesn't ask why he killed his mother. 

This is a story of a woman's life, and what gives it meaning. It questions what we live for and what we value. It mixes the appearance of  a bucolic country life with black humour and bitterness. I liked a lot of it, mainly for its look at how women are squeezed out of everything as they get older. Matilda is overlooked by her own children, patronized by some of the locals, and she's a lonely woman with no real friends to speak of (her two old London friends are nasty and competitive with her). But there is so much bleakness here - murder, suicide, incest, petty cruelties. I found it depressing, and a little unpleasant overall. Wesley certainly skewers this family's psychology without holding back. Well written but no pleasantries to be found here. 

Breakfast With the Nikolides

Breakfast with the Nikolides / Rumer Godden
London: Virago, 2013, c1942.
220 p.

I recently read this Godden book; I have a number of her books and have enjoyed many. This one, however, I didn't enjoy. I found a few elements that were engaging, but overall it was too problematic and unfortunately dull for me. 

It's set in a small town in India (other readers place it as current Bangladesh) -- Charles Poole is an agricultural specialist based in this location, to teach new farming methods to the locals. His estranged wife Louise suddenly arrives with two daughters in tow; she's fleeing Paris under German occupation. But she hates India; the culture, the people, the climate, everything. She's a miserable woman and Charles is very self centred. He is happy to have his daughters with him, though, and gives the eldest, Emily, a spaniel. This dog turns out to be the crux of much of the action of the book that follows.

Emily is an adolescent who does not get on with her mother at all, they are opposites and Emily is a proto-emo teen. But she instantly adores her father, whom she barely knows, and this creates another wedge in the family. 

There are descriptions of their lives, their glamourous neighbours the Nikolides, and many of the locals, including a veterinarian whose life intersects with the Pooles in a vital way. There is also a local student whose obsession with the veterinarian leads to tragedy. 

I felt that there was a bit too much going on here, and the story felt disjointed. Godden can often write in a fragmentary, dreamy way, especially in her India novels, but I didn't think it worked well here. I struggled to finish it, and didn't feel any sympathy for the characters who felt wooden to me (except for maybe the veterinarian's wife). Charles and Louise were just nasty, and the descriptions of India felt old-fashioned, without any self-awareness.  This one wasn't a winner for me! 
 

The Plague Stone

The Plague Stone / Gillian White 
London: Phoenix, 1996, c1990.
320 p.

Another oddball book that I picked up in a thrift store, drawn in by the cover and the series. This is the first book I've read by this author, and I won't be looking for her further work! 

It's called The Plague Stone for the looming presence of this landmark in the middle of the village of Meadcombe, a hulking rock wound about with legends of black magic from the past. 

There are three women in this book - Marian, Sonia and Melanie. Each has a dilemma and on one dark night, they all wish for change on the Plague Stone. Their wishes are granted, but is it coincidence or something darker? That's the question of this book, and it seems speculative and philosophical until it isn't, rather it's something quite real - this change in the tone and expectations from beginning to end was unsettling as a reader, and I don't think it quite worked. I was left wondering what actually happened here. 

Marian is a widow, left to care for her aged mother-in-law, a nasty woman at the best of times who is now suffering from dementia as well. Marian just wishes that the old woman would die already and free her from this burden. 

Sonia is used to being a wealthy woman, and has to beg her father-in-law for a loan to save her husband's business. How she goes about it makes her cringe the next day. 

And Melanie is a teenager full of angst and goth tendencies, who can't stand her self-martyred mother and depressed, self-focused father. She just wishes to get out of the village. And she does; she disappears, setting off the rest of the drama. 

The dark centre of the book is Melanie's mother Janey, a woman obsessed with the idea that everyone around her belongs to a devilish cult, and they've stolen Melanie away. She is very wrong, but as it turns out, right in one small way. In any case, everyone else has their own issues they are dealing with and aren't as focused on Melanie as Janey wants them to be. She's known to be a problem teen and most locals assume she ran away (for understandable reasons). Janey, however, spirals into deeper delusion, even as no-one around her seems to notice. 

This leads to the shocking and abrupt conclusion. I didn't see this coming, or, if I did I couldn't quite believe the author would go there. Melanie returns at the end, too late to do anything, and she and her grandmother (who she had in actually run away to) are not what you might have expected or foreseen. It's a strange tale, more violent that I'd expected, and left me unsatisfied with the ending; the build up of the events in the story seem pointless in light of the ending. It sticks in the mind, but perhaps not for the best reasons. 

Mr. Wrong

Mr. Wrong / Elizabeth Jane Howard
London: Pan, 1993, c1975.
223 p.

This collection of nine short stories was not what I expected. The title story leads the collection, and it is much darker than I had anticipated. I wish I would have known that it was a horror story before I began - it was very unsettling indeed!  In fact it coloured the rest of the book for me, even though the rest of the stories are not really horror. I didn't actually like this story very much; sometimes I can admire even if it's not for me, but this one left a bad taste. 

There are other stories here that are looking at dysfunctional or unhappy families - Whip Hand or Pont au Gard are examples, showing difficult mother-daughter dynamics or couples confessing affairs. But there are a couple of others that are more charming, even if a bit edgy, like Toutes Directions. 

Overall the stories are well crafted, with a real focus on character. The settings do evoke an England of a certain time and focus; this was published in 1975, and I find many books by English women from this time period to have this kind of female struggle as a key element. It's a bit dark though, and I'm not sure I'd look for any of her work again if this had been my first read by her. If you like horror tales or an atmosphere of angst in your short stories, you may like this collection. 

Peace, Perfect Peace

 

Peace, Perfect Peace / Josephine Kamm
London: Dean Street Press, 2019, c1947.
206 p.

Now for the last of my Dean Street Press streak! This was a shorter read than some other titles in this series, and appealed to me because of its setting, immediately post-war with evidence of wartime still all around. 

This was the most interesting part of the book, for me - the descriptions of rusting barbwire entanglements on the beaches, the shortage of housing which necessitates the main characters taking a flat in poor repair, constant dust from bombed sites, rationing in food and in clothing (there are difficulties buying a dress and the main character has to settle for what's available). 

The storyline focuses on the Smallwood family. Frances is returning from her service with the ATS, and her husband should be coming back from his wartime service soon as well. She is going to retrieve her children from her mother-in-law Joanna's country house, where they've lived for the last five years. Joanna is loath to let them go, feeling that only she really understands them, particularly the boy Giles. 

There are struggles between Joanna and Frances over the two children, albeit mostly unspoken ones. Frances believes Joanna is trying to alienate her children, but nobody really believes her. Meanwhile, Clare, a friend of Joanna's, is stuck in the middle of this struggle, getting confidences from both sides. Clare, however, is more focused on her own life - romantic difficulties, and the agony of not being able to finish her second novel. 

I loved the setting and some of the elements of the story. But overall, I found it bland, with tiresome characters and an overreliance on the psychological elements of the story. It's trying to show the disruptions that the end of the war caused, specifically for women, but the characters are not engaging and I didn't really care whether Clare wrote a book or not, or the Smallwood family reconnected or not. The plot was thin and slow moving, and Clare just floats through the book, with nothing actually happening to her, and nothing resolved. The Smallwood issues are resolved as Frances' husband comes home and after some fuss, believes her and regathers their children into their small family unit, as is right -- this insistence on the small nuclear family to the exclusion of a wider inclusion of grandparents or friends also felt retrograde. 

So unfortunately this one wasn't really a match for me. I finished it to find out what was going to happen to the family, but I didn't love this one. 

All Done By Kindness

 

All Done By Kindness / Doris Langley Moore
London: Dean Street Press, 2020, c1951.
246 p.

This is the first novel by Doris Langley Moore I've read, and I really enjoyed it, for many reasons. She was one of the first female fashion historians in England, and started the first costume museum there, with the support of luminaries such as Dior and the Queen Mother. She wrote novels, society guides, and plays and had a wide artistic circle. All this appealed to me! 

But on to this book itself. I didn't know much about it when I began reading, which is a great way to go into it. It follows the Sandilands family, a country doctor with two adult daughters, after he is given a trunk of old paintings by an elderly patient. She is grateful for his care for her despite her increasing lack of funds - all she has left is a big old house that's now mostly shut up. These paintings turn out not to be the junk they'd all first assumed. 

Dr. Sandilands' two daughters are quite different from one another. Beatrix, the eldest, is orderly, bossy and controls the household. Linda, the younger, is laissez-faire, with a part time job in the local library, and not much concern about housekeeping. She knows that her boss, librarian Stephanie du Plessis, is an amateur art specialist as well as a fiend when it comes to research, so asks her to take a look at the paintings. Stephanie comes up with a solid provenance and theory, and believes they are worth a whole lot. 

So Beatrix and Dr. Sandilands head up to a real art expert in London, Sir Harry Maximer. But his opinion on them depends greatly on what he wants to do with them. The scheming is underway! 

The book starts a bit slowly, but gets going once the paintings are in play. So many characters with their eye on them, so much shadiness, so many ploys and counterploys! It's great fun. I was all in once Stephanie de Plessis appeared; how many times does a clever librarian get to be the driving force in a novel? I loved it. 

It's fun, with a dash of serious art history, some romance, and a really satisfying ending with only one minor thread not tied up. The villain gets an unusual comeuppance and it made me laugh. For a clever and amusing romp, with art and librarians and museums involved, this one is a great choice. I'd definitely read more of Moore's work on the strength of this one. 

Miss Carter and the Ifrit

Miss Carter & the Ifrit / Susan Alice Kerby
London: Dean Street Press, 2019, c1945.
222 p.

I've been reading a whole lot of Dean Street books lately, and this was one of my favourites so far. It's set during WWII but it's also a bit of a fairytale. 

Miss Georgina Carter is a single woman in her late 40s, living in a comfortable though sparse flat. As the story opens, she is not so comfy, as she's lacking coal. She buys some wood blocks from a street seller to heat her flat, wood that had been part of roads long ago. As she burns them, one cracks open and an Ifrit appears to her (don't call him a genie!) He's been freed from his long imprisonment in this wood, and is ready to serve his new master. 

Miss Carter, however, is very practical and isn't quite sure what to do with this turn of events. She's embarrassed by his lavish servitude, insists he sits on the furniture as an equal with her, and nicknames him Joe. To prove his powers and willingness to serve, he magics in exotic food, cushions and colour, and other treats. When she is missing her only nephew greatly, Joe whisks her to Canada where he is training -- to the nephew's great shock. This scene is very funny, as the nephew tries to make sense of what is happening and convinces himself he is still drunk from his night out. 

But then a former flame, a friend of her brother's, shows up and Joe scents romance. Miss Carter insists it's not, but we are given glimpses of her past and his, and know that it will be. 

The joy of the book is the relationship between Miss Carter and the Ifrit. When Joe first appears, he is traditional, bound to his habits. So is Miss Carter - stuck in a British spinster's life with a constricted view of the world. Joe becomes fascinated with the modern world and is absorbing and learning at an exponential rate. And Miss Carter begins to learn and grow alongside him. They have conversations about ethics, wishes, morals, and meaning, and it's really engaging to read along. Joe even visits an old nemesis, another Ifrit who has chosen to go the opposite way to Joe, the way of power and corruption; this Ifrit is in thrall to none other than Hitler. (this book was published in 1945, so it was all still going when she wrote this). They free one another through their relationship; Joe quite literally, and Miss Carter from her small life.

I thought this was a delight, a mix between fantastical and really ordinary things - Miss Carter still goes to work in her office every day, for example, once wearing a beautiful dress that Joe has got for her, to the suspicious and jealous eyes of her coworkers. I thought the writing was light and entertaining, and the story certainly unusual, both funny and touching. Lots to think about here, and a happy ending for a 47 year old heroine. Really great read. 

The Lark

 

The Lark / E. Nesbit
London: Dean Street Books, 2017, c1922.
267 p.

For a book that's now over 100 years old, this feels fresh and engaging in so many ways. I enjoyed reading this, although on reflection, it feels a little like two separate books combined. 

It's 1919 and Jane and Lucilla are just leaving school, to go live with their trustee in a country cottage -- only to find that he has mismanaged their funds and done a bunk. They have a small cottage to live in and a bit of money, but realize they will have to make money for themselves somehow. They begin by selling flowers from their garden to passersby on the road - this is a success and they need to find a bigger and better flower garden to supply themselves from. 

There is a big house down the road, long empty but with a large garden, and somehow they manage to finagle a room there to use as their flower shop. Jane and Lucilla do seem to fall into luck most times. Jane has more gumption and as their precarious business starts, she's the one who bracingly says: 

Life is a lark — all the parts of it, I mean, that are generally treated seriously: money, and worries about money, and not being sure what’s going to happen. Looked at rightly, all that’s an adventure, a lark. As long as you have enough to eat and to wear and a roof to sleep under, the whole thing’s a lark. Life is a lark for us, and we must treat it as such.

They need a steadier source of income, however, and end up fixing up the big house and taking in paying guests, some of whom disappear without paying. This is where it feels like another story is beginning. Their circumstances have changed a lot since the beginning of the story, there are now young men involved and they've somewhat magically been allowed the use of this big house for their needs by running into the owner's handsome nephew, John Rochester, and they can afford a couple of servants as well. Jane's young man was foreshadowed in the beginning, in an opening chapter 4 years prior to their leaving school. While Lucilla's was a bit sudden and silly in my opinion! 

In any case, this was a funny and charming tale. I'm always interested in stories where someone has to start a business to survive, especially when it's the unexpected combination of two young women on their own. There are practical issues for them to deal with as well as the lighter ones of romance, and they get up to some mischief as well. Entertaining characters, not what you'd expect, and a beautiful country setting. I enjoyed this one. 

Rhododendron Pie

Rhododendron Pie / Margery Sharp
London: Dean Street Press, 2021, c1930.
225 p.

I thought it was time for another Margery Sharp, so I chose this title from my library. I'm so glad I did; it was a joy to read. This was Sharp's first novel, reputedly written in a month. If so, it must have been a busy month because this is an enjoyable and well constructed novel. 

Ann Laventie is the youngest of a family full of elegant aesthetes. Her father is a charming dilettante, her brother and artist and womanizer, and her sister a restrained essayist. Ann, however, prefers to do jigsaw puzzles and play with the rowdy children of a local family. As she grows older, she realizes she looks more down to earth than the rest of her beautiful family also.The title of the book comes from their family tradition of birthday pies filled with flowers to please the eye; but Ann doesn't want rhododendrons, she wants apples, as she thinks: 

Flowers are beautiful in gardens … and in houses, of course … but in a pie you want fruit. Apples. Hot and fragrant and faintly pink, with lots of juice … and cloves. She wished there had been apples in her pie.

Her mother, though, is more like her, even if she doesn't see it right away. Mrs. Laventie has limited mobility due to an accident in the past, and in the story she is mostly in the background. She spends time in her room, not always with the family as they get up to all sorts of things. But in the end it's Mrs. Laventie who has her say. 

There are various episodes shared, as Ann gets older. We see the interrelations of the family members clearly, the irresponsibilities and prejudices they hold. The story is a clash between aesthetic standards and a much more practical life. Especially when Ann falls in love with a stolid bank clerk from the family she knew as a child. Ann realizes she can't please everyone, and has to choose a direction for herself. It's such a satisfying story, with multiple side characters who are all fully and lively, besides Ann's own family. There are scenes in bohemian London as well as at the Laventie home in the country, and each one has its charm. A lovely first novel which contains many of the themes that later books explore more deeply. 

 

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day / Winifred Watson
Bath: Persephone, 2008, c1938.
234 p.

Heading back to the past this week with a bunch of reviews of books from my own shelves, all classics that I've been meaning to read for ages. This one has been on my TBR for a long time -- and we made it into an event, I read the book and then we watched the movie! (and yes, the book was better)

Miss Pettigrew is a middle aged child minder, down on her luck, when her temp agency sends her to a potential job -- but the messages cross and she ends up at the apartment of Delysia DeFosse, a kind of glamour girl in diaphanous clothing with multiple men friends and a party lifestyle. Miss Pettigrew stays, however, dispensing down to earth advice from her clergyman daughter's persepective, and inadvertently fixing many elements of Delysia's life. All in one day! 

This is a romp of a book, from the 30s, and it packs in quite a lot of event into one pivotal day of Miss Pettigrew's life. It's a fairy tale; Miss Pettigrew is desperate and destitute in the beginning, thrown into the orbit of a Bright Young Thing, gets all shined up thanks to Delysia's makeup and costume friends, goes to her first nightclub, and meets a nice rich man by the end. Her life has been completely unpended. It is a favourite of many, and it is a delight in many ways. The humour which comes out of the contrast of Miss Pettigrew's upbringing and experience with Delysia's lifestyle and social whirl is very amusing, and the book includes funny line drawing to illustrate the storyline also. I really did enjoy a lot of this. 

However, as a book from the late 30s, the casual antisemitism in it is quite jarring. It does colour this book for me. And there are light, tossed off comments about men beating women, as if it is natural and expected, haha. I tried to overlook these but unfortunately it does bring down the enjoyment of this story -- while you can think, oh it's of its time, that doesn't mean you will also dismiss it now. A mixed bag for me for all these reasons. 

Ballet Shoes

 

Ballet Shoes / Noel Streatfeild; illus by Diane Goode
Bullseye Books, 1993, c1936.
281 p.

Shortly after my Susan Scarlett reading streak, I saw this hardcover illustrated edition of Ballet Shoes at the thrift store so thought I had better read it. Susan Scarlett was the pen name of Noel Streatfeild, and this is Streatfeild's best known children's book. 

So what did I think? Well, meh. It's the story of three young girls, all adopted by a dithery professor in his scientific journeys around the world. He dumps them off a home with a female relative and a housekeeper, then disappears again, for a long time, leaving them in financial straits. 

The three girls are all artistically inclined, and are sent to a dance school to learn a trade of sorts, from a very young age. The oldest, Pauline, is an actress, dancer and singer, and once she hits 12 she's happy that she can start earning money for the family. Petrova, the middle girl, resigns herself to dance training but her real love is mechanics; she dreams of being a pilot. Posy, the youngest, is a born dancer and has a one track mind where it is concerned. All three look forward to being able to contribute to the household after age 12, when children were allowed to work for pay. 

The book is nearly all women; from the girls to their 'aunt' and housekeeper, to the lodgers that they take in to help pay the bills (all except one), to the teachers and their friends at the school -- I liked this, it was interesting to see so many kinds of women represented. 

The book really goes into the daily grind of arts training -- you can tell that Streatfeild knows this world well. But honestly that detail was a bit boring, and the three young girls and their struggles aren't very engaging either, at least to me. Also the ending is a bit fairy godmotherish with the professor's return, everyone seems delighted to see him, not even angry that he disappeared and left them struggling for so long. I wasn't as impressed with that! I can't really see modern child readers bothering with this one. But as a classic I'm glad I read it even if I didn't end up loving it (and probably wouldn't have as a young reader either). This particular edition has lovely soft pencil illustrations and they were a great addition. I don't think I'll try any of her other children's books, though. 

Poppies for England

 

Poppies for England / Susan Scarlett
London: Dean Street Press, 2022, c1947.
208 p.

Another Susan Scarlett! The last one for a while, anyhow. This was intriguing because it's set just post-war, at a holiday camp in England. The main characters are two theatrical families who are hired to put on a variety show each night, and twice on rainy days, to entertain guests at the camp. I was really surprised by the idea of a luxury holiday camp, which had hundreds of guests all summer long, with regular entertainments and childcare activities provided. Did these kind of resorts really exist? Well, something like them must have, because Susan Scarlett was part of the theatrical world and must have experienced something like it to write about it so comprehensively. 

The storyline is a bit sharper here - no naive vicars or trusting blind men - rather there are a bunch of actors and dancers who want to succeed, and families that are struggling to get back to some sense of normalcy after the men have been away at POW camps for much of the war. Scarlett really captures the sense that there were two parallel lives going on, the men's experiences, and the women's on the home front, and that it was hard to reconcile after 5 traumatic years apart. 

The two families, the Corners and the Binns, are both theatrical couples, and they have children to bring into the act. Dulcie Corner is the eldest, an up and coming star, beautiful and blond and a lovely singer though only passable dancer. Nella Binns is the oldest of her family, and she is a beautiful dancer but doesn't have the star quality that Dulcie does. But Dulcie is also 100% focused on Dulcie only, and what she wants. That's stardom, fame, and right now it's also their new pianist, Tom Connors. But Tom only has eyes for Nella. Dulcie is the spiteful antagonist here and she does some really awful things from jealousy, things that could impact the fortunes of her whole family. She only sees her own ends. 

The young man who organizes the entertainment for the camp is a soldiering friend of both Corner and Binns men, and so he takes Dulcie in hand. And of course falls for her, despite her actions - he says he is impressed with her despite it all, and really, is a similar person himself. It's an odd anti-hero romance but it works. Nella is vague and I wasn't as taken with her romance which is supposed to be the heart of the book. I found that the strength of this story was really the family connection, and the post war setting. It was unusual to get that discussion of what war did to intimate relations between spouses and families. And the theatrical content was also fascinating! Despite Dulcie's horrible character, and the requisite melodrama, I thought this was a good one. 

Under the Rainbow

 

Under the Rainbow / Susan Scarlett 
London: Dean Street Press, 2022, c1942.
270 p.

I decided to read another Susan Scarlett shortly after finishing The Man in the Dark. They are so light and frothy, they are perfect for tired brains in the summer. I enjoyed this one as well. The two stories have similarities; in this one Judy Griffiths goes to the idyllic village of Saltings to act as a companion for two small children who've just been orphaned and are to be under the care of their uncle, the unworldly vicar at Saltings. Martin is a dear, but he's also single, so needs someone to care for the children for him. And he will need a chaperone of sorts, as he's not comfortable having a young woman in the house without someone else there. Just at that moment, his aged Aunt Connie loses her flat and he decides to take her in - it will help her, and him as well - just so long as he can overlook the fact that she is a mean, selfish woman who is also starting to slide into dementia. 

Judy has a dark secret she is hiding, which looks really bad from one perspective, which is of course the perspective of her rival, widowed Lady Blacke, who has her eye on Martin. Lady Blacke (Veronica) is young and modern, a real Lady Bountiful who can't see that the local residents who she is trying to shower money on don't want her "help" and resent her attitude. She is one of the expected antagonists in a Susan Scarlett novel; selfish, prepared to undermine another woman she sees as a rival, in order to get what she wants. Of course these antagonists never do. But what I found a bit shocking in this one was Aunt Connie. She is truly unhinged and her ungrounded antipathy toward Judy is actually a bit scary. I was expecting something really awful to happen, the way that she was portrayed. 

But added to the mix of true love never running smooth is the mixup of partners. Martin's friend, the local schoolteacher, falls hard for Judy - she doesn't return the feeling. Lady Blacke is obsessed with Martin - he doesn't see it and doesn't return the feeling either. But neither Judy nor Martin can admit or allow their own feelings for one another. It's a bit of a mess! And in this one, too, there is a very young girl who decides she is miserably in love with middle aged Martin - this time it's the schoolteacher's teenage niece. 

All of these conundrums are of course put right by the end, rather quickly and by chance. In this one, though, there are threads of unhappiness left over - some characters don't get a happy romance, and are left pining. But everything turns out as it should, in a rather Shakespearean way. The right pairs get together, delusions are cleared, and the obstructive characters are made powerless. I was glad to see that Aunt Connie was properly diagnosed with plans made to get her the care she needed, by the end - it was an unusual element in a book like this and gave it a bit of darkness I wasn't expecting. I'm finding these interesting reading, for the way they portray the time period. I always find that genre books (romances yes but especially mysteries) really reflect their time and all the automatic assumptions of an era so well. This one does give some flavour of the times. 

The Man in the Dark

 

The Man in the Dark / Susan Scarlett 
London: Dean Street Press, 2022, c1940.
210 p.

I read this in ebook form recently, as I was returning home from a trip. It whiled away an entire flight quite enjoyably! 

Susan Scarlett is the pen name of Noel Streatfeild; she wrote 12 romances under this name, in and around wartime as reading meant to distract, and Dean Street Press has reissued them all. They are generally light and charming, although I am beginning to detect patterns: there is always a rival to our heroine who is self-centred and duplicitious, but what surprises me is how often it is a sister or cousin who is so mean spirited. 

In this book, Marda Mayne is hired as a companion of sorts for the young 17 year old goddaughter of James Longford. James was in an accident a few years before and lost his sight, and he's been a recluse ever since. But his best friend has died and he's now responsible for Shirley. So the charming and optimistic Marda enters his dark and dour household, and after their first meeting, you will know where this is going. 

However, there are stumbling blocks in the way. The housekeeper is dead set against Marda and the changes she wants to make. James' sister is poisonous, not wanting any young woman coming between James' money and the inheritance she plans on for her young son. And even 17 yr old Shirley tries to vamp James once she sees Marda is interested (Marda does not have a poker face). There are often very young girls acting romantically in her books, I find.  

In any case, Marda ultimately triumphs, as you know she will before you even open the book. But it was a circuitous route, with lots of entertaining brouhahas to read about, and some romantic subplots that are both amusing and charming. This one felt more light-hearted and optimistic than some of the other ones I've read, there is no true antagonist plotting seriously against Marda here. I found it a delightful, easy read and it put me in the mood for more of her books. 

Table Two

Table Two / Marjorie Wilenski
London: Dean Street Press, 2019, c1942.
224 p.

This is another wartime novel but this one is set in WWII. It also explores working women during the war; we're meeting the women of Table Two, all translators working for the (fictional) Ministry of Foreign Intelligence. There are a full set of them, all types, from matronly to spinster, both women who have worked their whole lives and some rich volunteers doing 'their bit' for the war effort. 

The two that are most focused on are Elsie Pearne, a bitter middle-aged woman who has had to leave her important job on the continent due to the war, and is now constantly comparing her coworkers idiocy to her superior intelligence. She's blunt and unfriendly, and although her actual work is excellent, nobody else at Table Two really likes her. We learn a lot about her background and why she might be this way; the author seems to have compassion for her and although she is awful she is also the most real of all the characters. She reminds me of Katherine Brooke in Anne of the Island, although she is never brought back to social normalcy by the magic of Anne Shirley. 

But that brings me to the second main character, Anne Shepley-Rice. She comes from a formerly affluent family, and never expected to work. But here she is, sunny and delighted to make use of her skills with Portuguese. Elsie sees her as a possible friend, someone who isn't already turned against her, but as always she is far too intense and snobbish, and ends up damaging the fledgling friendship. 

Anne has a rich grandmother, some investments and a rich boyfriend to fall back on, so she isn't quite as intensely involved in the day to day of the office as some of the others. There is class tension between the 'workers' and volunteers, and dislike for Elsie generally, but this all gets ramped up into high gear when Table Two finds out that the post of Assistant Deputy Supervisor is up for grabs. 

This was a fascinating read. The office bickering is instantly recognizable to anyone, even during a war it went on. The story is almost all women, as well -- some of the men who toil away in management are barely seen and are flat characters in comparison. The ensemble cast has representatives of all sorts of people, and I would have liked to see more of that element and learn more about them, but the book couldn't go on forever. It opens a few days before the first bombing of London, and as it was written during the war, there is uncertainty as to the outcome. She describes the daily experience of living with bombings, spending lots of worktime in shelters, and carrying on despite it all. And since she was living through it all while writing this, there is an immediacy that is unbeatable. 

This one is definitely worth a read, even if it a bit uneven as a novel. Despite any of the dramatic flaws, this book captures women's lives in the midst of war, one that no-one knew the ending of. That's compelling. 

 

18th Annual Canadian Book Challenge

 

It's time to sign up for another year of the Canadian Book Challenge! This is the 18th consecutive year that the challenge has been running. 

This challenge was created by John Mutford at the Book Mine Set and hosted by him for its first 10 years & then right here for a couple of years, and is now hosted by Canadian Bookworm. Essentially it's a challenge to read and review 13 Canadian books from July 1 to July 1. Links to reviews can be shared at Canadian Bookworm and you can find everything that everyone reads for the challenge over there. 

If you're interested, all are welcome. Need ideas? You can find the last few years of books compiled in a list at Canadian Bookworm, and you can also find lists from the couple of years it was hosted here at the Indextrious Reader.

It's a fun, easygoing challenge and I enjoy doing it each year! 

Latchkey Ladies

 

Latchkey Ladies / Marjorie Grant 
Malvern, UK: Handheld Press, 2022, c1921.
302 p.

This was the first novel of Canadian writer Marjorie Grant, but it's based in England, focusing on the "latchkey ladies" of wartime. I'm very glad it was republished by Handheld Press, as that's how I heard of it. 

The story follows four main characters, Latchkey Ladies all. This means that they are living in London in small flats, working for their livings, dependent on their latchkeys - no home ownership, no family or spouse. Sometimes sharing flats though, as they move around the city looking for a liveable spot. 

It opens in 1918, at the Mimosa Club, a kind of gathering spot for working girls and down on their luck older ladies too. Some of the young women, like Maquita, put the older women's teeth on edge, with her loud voice and laughter. But the old women do the same to the younger in turn, with their sour prissiness. Maquita is one of our focus characters, alongside Sophy, Anne and Petunia. Maquita is jolly, seeming to enjoy this life. Sophy is bland, so much so that even her own mother favours Anne. Anne Carey really is the favoured one, and the story really becomes her story. Petunia shows up a little later on, and she's beautiful but the gossip is that she is half Indian, which still matters to a lot of people. (Grant included; she seems to hold a lot of those class opinions). Anne provides the viewpoint to the story; she is working in a wartime office with Canadian soldiers and they are rough and not quite at the level of Englishmen, which is funny considering Grant is herself actually Canadian. The colonial viewpoint has been thoroughly absorbed!  

In any case, Anne hates her work but she has the level of privilege to just quit, without having another job lined up. Among her four friends, she has the most financial flexibility, but they all seem to have a lot more fun. She flounders a bit but then meets Philip Dampier, a writer (married with children) who has a bit of glamour for her. She is working for her aunt at a girl's school at this point, but spends time with Dampier when she can. And then she finds out she has let herself in for some trouble indeed. Fortunately she has another aunt who takes care of her at this juncture. 

The story is uneven in pacing and characterization - some people appear to shortly disappear completely, and storylines are given different emphasis at different times in the book. And Anne, for all that she's the main character, isn't very engaging. She's a bit selfish and spoiled in some ways. 

But this is still very worth reading for its description of life in just barely post WWI England. And it focuses on women, and the ways they scraped their livings if they weren't married. It looks at the details of life for the Latchkey Ladies themselves, or older spinsters and companions, or Anne's aunts, one of whom becomes a reclusive scholar and the other an active schoolteacher (albeit one who is openly in a loving female relationship). This relationship in particular was interesting; the two women are instructors at a girl's school, and the only thing they are mocked for by the students is their old-fashioned-ness and love of the classics, nothing more. But the book, while not using direct language, makes it clear that it's a long-term partnership. 

The story also delves into class, money, marriage, women's options, various occupations that single women could find, the attitudes of many men toward single working women, and much more. It takes on the daily experiences of post war England, written contemporaneously. It does fall into a bit of melodrama and romanticism, like many popular books written in this era, and definitely shows the edge of racism when talking about Petunia or even Anne's Irish landlady. But I was surprised at how candid it is about many so-called taboo subjects at that time. Really interesting read, I enjoyed it overall. 

Stitches

  

Stitches / Glen Huser
TO: Groundwood Books, c2003.
200 p.

I picked up this short YA novel from my library recently -- I mean, just look at the cover! How could I not want to read this one? And I liked it, but do have a few caveats to that opinion.

The story follows Travis and his best friend Chantelle, as they move from fifth grade to junior high. Travis is different; he loves making puppets and wants to grow up to be a professional puppeteer. Chantelle has many physical disabilities and between them they are the outsider kids in their school. Travis has high hopes for changes in junior high, but while they do have supportive home ec and English teachers, who both encourage Travis' interest in drama and puppets, there is also more homophobic bullying from a group of boys he's known for a long time. But their teachers set them a challenge to present A Midsummer Night's Dream as a puppet show as their final project, and this keeps them going. 

The action in the story is mainly centred around the homophobic violence, which is never clearly resolved in the end. Travis' home life is rough, with a mother who's rarely around - he lives with his aunt and uncle (and the uncle is a mean loud mouth). He doesn't have anyone to confide in or to stand with him at home. Chantelle has older brothers who are rough types but at least support her and by extension, Travis as well, and they come in strongly at the end. 

There is lots of description of Travis and Chantelle sourcing fabric for their puppets at the thrift store, and making things like bags, puppet stages, and more. But I thought from the cover and description that there might be a bit more focus on that part of the story. 

The narrative tone is also a bit confusing. It doesn't feel so much like a young adult living the story, but an adult looking back at the events and telling them in retrospect. And the timing is a bit off; sometimes from one paragraph to the next, you are in the next school year without realizing it at first. I think some spacing/breaks in the typesetting could have helped with the transitions. 

I did like this one. It's set in rural Alberta and has some authenticity there. But I did feel a bit overwhelmed by everything being so dismal for Travis, from home to school, with so many aggressive characters and anger everywhere. I was relieved by the ending, with new hopes coming for Travis as he moves to the city to an arts-based high school. But I also felt that this novel, with important themes, could have been better.  

(review first published at FollowingTheThread.ca)