‘Portrait of a Marriage’ – A Semi-Autobiographical Glimpse of the Life and Loves of Vita Sackville-West

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Published: 1973

Author: Nigel Nicolson

Publisher: Slightly Foxed Ltd

Genre: Memoir/Biography

Subjects: Vita Sackville-West (V S-W), Harold Nicolson (writer and diplomat), Violet Keppel, Rosamund Grosvener

Setting: Knole (large country house with 52 staircases, spread over 1000 acres)

Format: confessions of Vita about her love affair with Violet Keppel. Vita’s diaries are interspersed with notes and commentary from her son, Nigel Nicolson

Summary: ‘Portrait of a Marriage’ is a description of several years in the married life of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson, part autobiography by Vita, part biography by the couple’s younger son Nigel Nicolson. In particular the book describes those critical years when the couple’s marriage teetered on a dangerous precipice. It was threatened by Vita’s affair with Violet Keppel, climaxing when Vita and Violet eloped to France, only to be retrieved by their respective spouses. What shines through in the book is the extraordinary bond that Vita and Harold shared with one another. Their marriage is an example of a relationship that didn’t follow conventional norms, but still worked for them in private, defying societal judgement, gossip and speculation.

On reading the memoir in its entirety, a few lines from the foreword have struck me the most and stayed with me. Penned by Nigel Nicolson, they read thus:

“It is the story of two people who married for love and whose love deepened with every passing year, although each was constantly and by mutual consent unfaithful to the other. Both loved people of their own sex, but not exclusively. Their marriage not only survived infidelity, sexual incompatibility and long absences, but became stronger and finer as a result. Each came to give the other full liberty without enquiry or reproach. Honour was rooted in dishonour. Their marriage succeeded because each found permanent and undiluted happiness only in the company of the other.”

Part One of the book is Vita Sackville-West’s personal diary from 1920, which attempts to recount details of her affair with Violet Keppel and purge her mind of the love she had for this woman. One can gauge a certain level of frustration that the author had, how she could not reconcile herself to loving someone of her own sex. She speaks of a ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde personality’.

“That is the whole crux of the matter, and I see now that my whole curse has been a duality with which I was too weak and too self-indulgent to struggle.”

This personal narrative of Vita’s is interspersed with notes from her son, Nigel Nicolson. Though the later pages of the book do mention Vita’s relationship with Virginia Woolf, this book does focus more wholly on Vita’s relationship with Violet Keppel, the single incident, which threatened to break Vita’s marriage with Harold. After this, the couple developed an understanding that remained unbroken, despite their subsequent infidelities.

Part One and Part Two have a number of streams of narrative : Vita’s parental family history and her childhood at Knole and the inheritance dispute of the family estate of Knole. Vita first met Violet at the age of 12. They went to school together in London but their relationship didn’t develop romantically till much later, when Harold and Vita were married for five years in 1918.

Part One and Part Two of Vita’s narrative serve as the prelude to the development of the affair. It details Vita’s family history, her Gramdfather’s love and special attention to her at Knole, the 1000 acre family estate, over which there was a very public legal battle upon Vita’s grandfather’s death. Vita’s parents won the estate and it was Vita’s home till she married the diplomat, Harold Nicolson in 1913. The couple set up their own home at Long Barn in a tumbledown cottage, two miles from Knole, which was extensively restored and extended by Sir Edward Lutyens, companion to Vita’s mother.

It was in the Spring of 1918, that Vita and Violet’s affair started at Long Barn. Harold was away on foreign diplomatic work. Vita and Harold were separated a lot due to Harold’s work and they missed each other tremendously, writing to one another frequently to fill the void between them. Violet was to be engaged to Denys Trefusis the following year – a relationship that was one-sided, in that Violet was obsessed, devoted to Vita and wanted to leave everything and live with her.

The climax was reached in 1920, when Vita and Violet planned to elope together to Amien in France. Rather ironically, on Valentine’s Day of 1920, Harold and Denys both flew to Amiens in a two seater aeroplane, piloted by Denys Trefusis. They then retrieved their respective spouses and took them back separately to Paris.

In the next year or so, although Vita and Violet met and went away together, their relationship dwindled. Violet returned to Denys. Vita went on to have relationships with different people but she always came back to her anchor and support, her constant companion to the end – Harold Nicolson. I feel their son, Nigel summarises the pattern of their relationship perfectly in the lines –

If their marriage is seen as a harbour, their love affairs were mere ports of call. It was to the harbour that each returned; it was there that both were based.

If one steps back from all the dates, the isolated events, the places, the people, the history that reside in the book, one person in particular shines through the narrative – Vita Sackville-West. One can’t help but believe that she must have been a tremendous personality. To have the capacity to love so many people, to have so many people love her so fervently, to have a constant, steadfast companion like Harold Nicolson to the last – now that highlights no ordinary individual.

Many Thanks to the Folks at Slightly Foxed for sending me a review copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

10 Beautiful Books for Summer

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Summer is the time when a bit of armchair travel is the ideal way to visit foreign climes from the comfort of the indoors. I’ve built an extensive list of Summer books that fit that bill. Books set on sunny islands without a whisper of rain, children camping in the Lake District and escaping the Natives (adults), school teachers seeking reprieve from hot classrooms, fruit picking in the South of England and listening to the romance of nightingale song piercing the silence of a hot Summer night and so, so much more. I’m sharing the first ten Summer books on my list with you all here. To receive the complete list of 50 Summer Books please subscribe to my Instagram channel.

I hope you like this selection. What should I add to the list?

1)All Summer Through by Malcolm Saville

This is the first in a quartet of novels set in the small town of Nettleford. Each of the books describes different seasons in the lives of a group of children who live in the town and have various adventures together. This book is set during the summer time. At the beginning of the holidays, some of the children think that it will be a long, restful, lazy holiday ahead but as luck would have it – the holidays are much more eventful than they had vouched for. The ‘Owlers’ – the group of children, assist with the Harvest at Northend Farm, and disaster strikes in the form of a fire when they are there. The best thing about these books for me, is the presence of a bookstore, run by one the children’s parents. 

2)Swiss Summer by Stella Gibbons

The Swiss Summer’ is set in the Grindelwald-Interlaken region of the Swiss Oberland, famed for its proximity to the giant peaks of the ethereal Jungfrau, Monch and Eiger. The story begins in the aftermath of the Second World War. The story is told through the eyes of a forty year old married woman called Lucy Cottrell. Lucy is tired of her busy life in London as the wife of an insurance agent, with its rush of social events and people. So when, a chance encounter with Lady Dalgleish, a woman owning a Swiss Chalet opens up an opportunity to spend a few weeks in this idyllic spot, Lucy jumps at the chance. The main reason for her visit is to act as an assistant to Freda Blandish, Lady Dalgleish’s companion, to catalogue Lady Dalgleish’s husband’s vast library of books and artifacts. However, what starts off as a secluded blissful holiday is converted to an uproarious retreat with a crew of weird and wonderful characters. A beautiful summer story that reads partly as a fantastic travelogue.

3)Darling Buds of May by HE Bates

This book is just ‘perfick’ to read in the summer if you should choose to use Pop Larkin’s (the protagonist of the book) favorite adjective. A young tax collector comes to Pop Larkin’s Essex farm for an audit only to find himself totally carried away by the love, laughter and excesses of the Larkin family. He falls in love with Mariette, the eldest Larkin daughter, Ma Larkin’s cooking and also Pop Larkin’s philosophy of living life to the lees. The descriptions of nature, summer and especially food make this an exceptional book.

4)One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downes

This was such a quiet, wistful novel, spanning the events of one particular day. It deals with the struggles of the post-WW2 upper-middle class, coming to terms with the loss of their glorious past and changing domestic situations. It charters a day in the life of a married woman called Laura. As evening falls, Laura is alone on a hillside and makes several realisations about the changes in her life and what she needs to be grateful for and look forward to. 

Set in an English coastal village in the aftermath of the Second World War the novel explores the  changing landscape of the country. The book has beautiful descriptions of the countryside on a hot summer’s day. One of my most favourite novels with a quiet, careful and descriptive narrative. 

5)In a Summer Season by Elizabeth Taylor 

“Her canvas is the unsettling heat of early summer in a village in the Thames Valley”, says her almost namesake and introducer to the novel – Elisabeth Russell Taylor. It’s about a woman called Kate Heron who surprisingly marries a man ten years her junior, a handsome man – not of comparable intellect, however. This act draws in the disapproval of Kate’s friends. When Kate’s old friend, Charles, visits with his beautiful daughter – storm clouds develop over the group that threaten the equilibrium. 

6)Visitors from London by Kitty Barne

‘Visitors from London’ is about how four children and their friends accepted a challenge, to make a home in the country for evacuated people from London. This book is written and set in 1940 and portrays what life must have been like for people during that time, when many suffered due to the war. 

This delightful family story is the second book in this series of fun-filled books. It is a book set during the summer holidays of 1939. Although it is a book about war and the chaos and confusion of those times, the rural countryside of Sussex is beautifully rendered as a backdrop to the narrative. 

7)Summer at Fairacre by Miss Read

‘Summer at Fairacre’ spans the extent of a single summer and it’s described as being one of the finest summers in memory in the small village. Miss Read certainly revels in the beauty of the outdoors, the abundance of produce (too many gooseberries!!), the wildlife – the little birds making a nest in her porch and the clear skies at night, revealing an abundance of stars. I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of summer flowers and the blissful atmosphere of summer days. 

“These summer nights were as lovely as the day. The moon rose each night, enormous and golden, and at its height it was almost bright enough to read a book.”

Highly recommend this book for a lovely summer read which I think works somewhat as a stand-alone too.

8)Farther Afield by Miss Read

Miss Read has an unfortunate accident in the first half of the book but in the second part of the novel she gets invited to spend a few weeks with her friend Amy on the Greek island of Crete. It is a lovely interlude and I thought a brilliant piece of travel writing within a book, describing the sights, smells, people, colours and  emotions of living on Crete. 

My favourite thing about the book was Miss Read’s ability to observe beauty in both her Greek surroundings and her ability to appreciate the comforts of home when she got back. Reading this book makes you feel like you have taken a summer holiday yourself. 

9)Fell Farm Holiday by Marjorie Lloyd

In ‘Fell Farm Holiday’ we are introduced to the Browne children – two sets of twins and Sally – the eight year old ‘baby’ of the family. Their parents are away on service abroad – so they travel as usual, to stay at a farm in the high fells of the Lake District during the summer holidays.

Whilst there, they arrange to spend a week camping out on the High Fells. One moonlit night, they even go on a nighttime hike of one of the highest peaks – Scawfell Pike. At dawn they view the sunrise from the top of the mountain. Mountain mists, storms at high altitude and precarious rock climbing are all part of the adventures. 

10)Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome

Written in a time when young English children returned from boarding school to spend summer holidays sailing around the serene water bodies of the English Lake District. There is a charm and innocence and way of living captured in these children’s books which is magically locked in time.

Librocubicularism, Pink Sugar by O Douglas and Books Within Books

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There is no greater comfort than reading in bed. Did you know that a person who reads in bed is called a librocubicularist? The word is an amalgamation of the Latin words for book and bedroom. Christopher Morley used this term in his book ‘ The Haunted Bookshop’. One of the books I’ve been reading in bed this month is O Douglas’ ‘Pink Sugar’. Isn’t it quite natural that one should read comfort books in bed or at least keep them by the bedside?

Here is a copy of my edition of ‘Pink Sugar’. Notice how Kirsty Gilmour beckons to us in her green dress. Wearing green emeralds around her neck, or is that jade?

I collect these pocket vintage Nelson editions of the O Douglas stories and am very fortunate to own a complete set. Here they are. Aren’t they stunning?

Let us return to Kirsty Gilmour and ‘Pink Sugar’. I’ve been hosting a super slow readalong of the book over on my Instagram channel. I’ve made copious chapter by chapter analysis and I’ve really enjoyed doing so. Apart from the bare backbones of the story, I’ve been simultaneously taking note of the books mentioned within ‘Pink Sugar’ – an epic example of how books live within books.

Books mentioned within books give us a fascinating insight into the personal library of the author. If it is a favourite author, then such insights are even more delightful. One would hope that such a reading list would provide even more reading material similar to our favourite author’s writing. Reading lists from old books (Pink Sugar was first published in 1924) give us an idea of what kind of books were being published at the time, a social history lesson of sorts. Here’s a list of some of the books mentioned by O Douglas.

Isn’t it a lovely list? Some of the books are ideal to curl up with on a rainy day while watching the rain pour outside.

Pink Sugar is just that kind of a book. It’s about young Kirsty Gilmour who is young, has a substantial legacy left to her by her Father, who decides to go back to her Scottish roots and rent a small house and garden in the Scottish Borders. The house is part of a larger estate owned by a retired Colonel. Little Phantasy as the small house is called is a charming house with a little stream trickling through the back garden. Kirsty’s heart is full but she only wants for the presence of people to fill her house with. An old Aunt, who has fallen on harder times is recruited along with three tiny children whose Mamma has passed away and whose Father wishes to travel to forget his grief. There are lots of well meaning neighbour’s, the beauty of the mountains as a backdrop to the story, ever present, majestic and looming. Each chapter of the story might be lifted from a charming stage production, so we’ll crafted are the situations, characters and dialogues. It is a quiet story about a young woman finding purpose in her life, of finding love and of giving love. It’s just the kind of story that I like. Nothing much happens but your inner world is enriched from reading it.

We will be reading The Proper Place by O Douglas on my Instagram channel in May. Do join.

January Musings

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Things I like to think about in January … a month which gives one a chance to pause and reset …

  • the cold of frosty mornings
  • making New Year’s resolutions just to break them
  • re-arranging the furniture. tidying up the writing desk, the bookshelf, the dresser drawers
  • going to the gym and not sweating like a monsoon rain cloud
  • being cosy with a hot water bottle and an easy knitting-in-the-round cowl project
  • smoke billowing from one’s breath, rising in fluffy plumes to the sky (does anyone, ever grow too old to enjoy this?)
  • warm baths and the luxurious feel of scented oils on the skin, in an after-bath self care ritual
  • the first sips of hot coffee in the morning or the last dregs of tea, late at night
  • sipping on warm water from a favourite mug throughout the day – comforting and calorie free
  • the joy of penning well-meant intentions into the crisp white pages of a new notebook
  • The warmth of kind hands when one’s own are icy cold
  • non-irritating family conversations over the holiday period
  • the beauty of fairy lights, glowing softly through the sadness of January mornings
  • making more Christmas cake from leftover boozy fruit, stewing sweetly in the refrigerator 
  • warm socks, last thing in bed, after a light application of oil to the soles of the feet
  • watching Vlogmas videos in January and rewatching favourites from past years
  • keeping decorations up in January and pretending the festive season is not yet over
  • Christmas cards arriving in the post in the New Year. Just the best way to remind oneself of the warm hug that is faraway friendship 

Introduction to Sally by Elizabeth von Arnim

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Introduction to Sally by Elizabeth von Arnim

‘Introduction to Sally’ by Elizabeth von Arnim is a novel about a young woman of exceptional beauty, who causes a flurry of excitement wherever she goes due to her great beauty. Rather than act as a boon, Sally’s exceptional looks bring her the wrong type of attention and this is a matter of concern to the people related to her. First her Father, then her protective husband and then people who get to know her well are flustered by the amount of attention Sally unwittingly receives.

Sally has one great disability, at least in the eyes of the upper middle class and upper classes of society that she finds herself in and that is her inability to enunciate well, particularly her ‘h’s’ at the beginning of words, in fact she is encouraged to quickly lose the Cockney accent that she has used and known her entire life. 

This is an extremely funny novel and von Arnim’s knack for bringing out the ridiculous in social situations makes it a novel that will strike you at every twist and turn of plot, but at the same time – to me at least – it is a heartbreakingly painful novel. A novel where one has to look upon the plight of a naive innocent young girl who is worshipped superficially and is trained to behave in ways that completely delete her past. It highlights how much beauty is revered in society. There’s also a very uncomfortable line drawn between the social classes – there are the Pinners of the world spouting their Cockney accent and leading honest hardworking lives, the Dukes and Duchesses of the world with nothing much to do with their time except look towards the next form of personal amusement, and then the Lukes of the world – living in genteel poverty yet steeped in snobbery, studying at Cambridge and trying to win respect and admiration through their accomplishments. 

This is an interesting novel with Sally at the centre of it all. In fact an ‘Introduction to Sally’ will have you feeling, and experiencing many things in the short course of meeting her. The crux of the matter is : is there anyone in her life who can see past Sally’s good looks and love her for who she is?

Sally’s parents are hardworking people living in London and running a grocery shop. Mrs Pinner however, attracts a lot of attention due to her good looks and has to be protected by her husband from all and sundry. The couple have a much awaited daughter after many years and the Pinners decide to call her Salvatia – a baby who brings about salvation of their souls and spirits – but Mr Pinner is not to know then, the trouble Salvatia or Sally as she is called, will bring him. 

When Sally is a young girl, Mrs Pinner passes away and now it is Sally’s turn to command everyone’s attention due to her startling good looks. Mr Pinner retires to a quiet sleepy village in the vicinity of Cambridge and hopes that no one will discover Sally there. He doesn’t take into account however, the number of undergraduate students at Cambridge who pass through the sleepy village and call on his grocery store. 

One day, a young brilliant undergraduate called Luke Jocelyn chances upon Mr Pinner’s shop and is awestruck with the vision of Sally. He forgets all his academic ambitions, his bright future, his family, his purpose – all he knows is that he is beguiled with Sally and must have her for his own. When he proposes to marry his daughter, Mr Pinner’s initial anger regarding Jocelyn’s attentions, turns to joy and within the fortnight, Sally is married off to Luke Jocelyn. 

During the blissful first moments of the honeymoon in Cornwall, Luke’s initial state of besottedness succumbs to horror as he realises that much is to be desired regarding Sally’s delivery of speech. Dropping of h’s at the beginning of words, terms and phrases, in fact her Cockney dialect and all the little niggling details of her lack of education and total oblivion regarding social niceties – makes him realise that he has to introduce Sally to his Mother – a snobbish woman who is very proud of her son and his accomplishments and is very aware of her position in society. 

When Mother meets Sally for the first time she makes gentrifying Sally a full-time project and Sally, much to her dismay is temporarily abandoned by her husband who goes back to Cambridge. There’s nothing left for Sally to do but abandon ship, leading to disastrous, weird and wonderful consequences. The book is quite a joy-ride of action and activity but through it all one can’t help feel sorry for Sally, who wants nothing more than two rooms to live in, a number of babies to take care of and ‘usband’ to come home to her at the end of the day. 

Is it a satire against society? Perhaps it is. And one can only wonder about a society so chained to a love for superficial ideals, wealth and an awareness of class differences. We need more people who have Sally’s heart, her love for home, her innocence and the freshness of her voice. A thoroughly thought-provoking novel shedding light on the social sensibilities of the 1920’s.

’Introduction to Sally’ was sent to me as a review copy but as always, all thoughts about the novel are my own.

Introduction to Sally by Elizabeth von Arnim

Stories for Winter and Nights by the Fire

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Stories for Winter and Nights by the Fire

There’s something very haunting about the collection of stories entitled ‘Stories for Winter and Nights by the Fire’. They’re certainly those kind of tales that will make you want to sit closer to the fire, nestle into a blanket and truly absorb the spirit of winter. I’ve now read the stories and each one of them has a wonderful mood that will have you pausing and thinking about the feeling of being immersed in winter. 

There’s an unusual story by Elizabeth Taylor of a young woman waiting for her lover in a house completely flooded by the icy waters of the overflowing Thames. She spends a night with two mystery neighbours, after wading out to their house in a boat, drinking and trying to overcome her sense of isolation. 

‘A Cup of Tea’ by Katherine Mansfield is set around a cold winter afternoon. The story is about a rich, well-to-do woman called Rosemary who, on a whim, takes home a poor young woman who asks her, on the street, for the price of a warming cup of tea. Her pity takes a turn though, when the young girl’s beauty catches the eye of her husband. 

‘The Snowstorm’ by Violet MacDonald is a peculiar story about a woman, Elizabeth and a man meeting at an inn and the man imploring her to spend the night with him. There is a description of the terrific snowstorm that they had to drive through to reach the country house in the depths of the country. There’s lots of atmosphere and even more snow and a feeling of foreboding in the story which keeps you on the edge of your seat. ‘November Fair’ by Kate Roberts is a small story that captures beautifully the hard life of the Welsh people with beautiful nuggets of quotidian detail. Here too the cosiness of the railway compartment contrasts sharply with the cold of the exterior Welsh landscape.

Apart from this there’s a spooky ghost story, a strange story from Elizabeth Bowen about searching for the perfect winter hat at a very quiet mysterious shop with a gracious and slightly condescending proprietress called Ann Lee. There’s a chance encounter with a sinister man whilst at the shop. There’s a story to make you smile called ‘The Cold’ from Sylvia Townsend Warner – which has that woeful wonder as its central character – the winter cold!

These are just a few of the stories that have caught my eye. I think this is the perfect book to pick up in January and February, when the excitement of Christmas is over and the winter nights draw in. Don’t expect Christmas cosy, but do expect lots of wintry atmosphere.

’Stories for Winter and Nights by the Fire’ was sent to me by the British Library as a review copy but as always all opinions are my own.

Apple Bough by Noel Streatfeild for #1962club

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‘Apple Bough’ by Noel Streatfeild, like all the best Streatfeild stories is centered around a large and closely knit family, who struggle to manage the family dynamic when the flourishing musical career of one of the four children threatens to destroy the sense of stability required for the well-being of the remaining children in the family.

The Forums consists of four children : Myra the eldest, Sebastian, the next eldest, then Wolfgang and the smallest child, Ethel. The children’s father, David, is an accomplished accompanying pianist and their mother Polly, a scatter brained artist who loves her children tremendously, but whose mind is so caught up in her art, that she struggled to manage her household.

At the start of the story, the children come to stay at a rambling cottage in the heart of the English countryside called Apple Bough. The cottage comes with a rather unkempt, sprawling garden.

Raspberries, strawberries, currants and gooseberries which nobody had planted would be discovered suddenly, buried under some other plant but with fruit growing on them. Plants that usually are considered wild come into the Apple Bough garden to flourish – cowslips on the lawn, primrose and a wild kind of daffodil in the weedy drive, dog roses grew where ordinary gardens had proper rose trees …

The children are rather small when they come to Apple Bough, ranging from about 2 years old to 6 years old. Named after world famous musicians by their music mad parents, Myra is named after Dame Myra Hess, Sebastian after Bach, Wolfgang after Mozart and Ethel after Dame Ethel Smyth. The children are watched closely for any traces of musical genius and it is Sebastian, the second eldest, who proves to have a natural flair for playing the violin.

In the next few years, Sebastian trains dilligently at his violin and the children spend idyllic days, growing up at Apple Bough. The children have a governess called Miss Popple, who not only teaches them lessons at home, but also cares for the house, cooking their meals and taking charge of their general well-being. Myra, even has a little dog called Wag, who makes their life complete. But Sebastian’s violin playing progresses at an enormous pace and a public concert places him in the eye of many prominent people in the music world.

An important American concert arranger called Paul Ruttenstein offers to sponsor a concert tour for Sebastian around America and the children’s parents jump at the opportunity. In a matter of a few weeks, Apple Bough is sold, the entire family with Miss Popple start a whirlwind tour of America and unfortunately, Wag the dog is left in the care of Miss Popple’s brother. The immense popularity of the US Tour leads to other tours and Sebastian enjoys worldwide celebrity and acclaim. The children’s parents are determined not to break up the family- so they stay together and their Mother always reminds them that they are lucky not to have to learn geography from their world atlases but instead from their personal experience.

Soon, however, the other children grow tired of their whirlwind life, never stopping at a place for more than a few days, never seeing their grandparents, not being able to pursue their individual passions, not having a permanent home and moreover, always being seen as appendages to Sebastian’s name and fame. After four years of touring the world, Myra, Wolfie and Ettie spend the summer with their grandparents in Devonshire and confide their woes to them. Ettinger wants to train as a Ballet dancer, Wolfie wants to write popular music and Myra, having no particular talent of her own, just wants to have a home again and longs for Apple Bough. They know that Sebastian must continue his concerts and their Mother will never agree to splitting up the family but Grandfather tells them to keep up their courage,focus on setting up ‘Operation Home’, feeling sure a means and a way will, be shown to them in due course.

What follows is a period of learning and self-discovery and the children gradually learn that with vision and determination, dreams can come true.

‘Apple Bough’ on one level is a family story. It is about family togetherness and the dynamics between siblings. It also deals with finding one’s own path in life – be it a path of prodigious talent or perhaps a path that is more shaded from the limelight. One of children feels quite upset that she doesn’t have a natural talent towards music or dance but instead just dreams of having a home. Her grandfather assures her that her greatest gift is that having a kind and loving heart and being a solid rock that her siblings can rely on. Streatfeild shows us that wherever and in whichever direction one’s path in life leads us, each path has its own value and being happy and healthy is important too. The child with fame and fortune wanted nothing more than to return home at the end of the day, to a house where belongings had their rightful place. Streatfeild shows us fame and fortune are desirable, talent has to be nurtured with effort and discipline but home is where the heart lies.

I reviewed ‘Apple Bough’ for Simon (stuckinabook.com) and Karen’s (kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com) #1962club where bloggers pick a book published in a particular year and review them in a concerted effort to see what the landscape of literature looked like in a particular year.

’One Year’s Time’ by Angela Milne

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‘One Year’s Time’ is a novel that examines the complex relationship between a young man and woman over the course of one year, in the years leading up to the Second World War. 

It is a relationship which starts off as a sexual encounter, after a chance meeting at a London party and the nature of the bond between Liza and Walter, remains one of a physical relationship, with the understanding between both individuals that it will not mature into anything as permanent as marriage. Though both parties proclaim that they want the same thing – that is not to be tied down by marriage, Liza resists from expressing her hope that one day Walter will propose marriage to her. In essence, Liza is never fully able to be herself around Walter, in fear that revealing her true emotions might push him away. On the surface, Walter appears to be kind and considerate, but his control over Liza, his emotional manipulation of her behaviour, her decisions and actions in life is evident to the reader. It is a novel of mental struggle, hope and disappointment, pent-up emotions, waiting and watching. But when an entire year passes by and Liza is still waiting, it is left to her to express her true emotions and hope that she means enough to the man she loves.

The novel starts with Liza poised on the threshold of a New Year, pondering about the future and wondering what the unfolding year will bring. The novel is dissected into four parts – based on the four seasons. The four seasons describe the passage of a year in time and also the variously unfolding seasons in Liza and Walter’s relationship. That of first love and the fresh excitement of being with someone new in the Spring. Then the experience of living together in summer in a small cottage in the depths of the English countryside. Then the autumn spent apart – with Liza having a seaside holiday with her Aunt and Walter travelling and spending time alone in France. Finally there is winter, when the novel reaches a climax and the relationship situation between Liza and Walter comes to a head. 

Liza is young, relatively independent, has her own private income which she supplements by working as a secretary in a small office in London. She has no really close family in London. There is a cursory mention of a Father in India and a brother in Vancouver, but they play no part in the novel.  Liza’s nearest kin in England, are her Aunt Vi and family living in rural Wiltshire.

After their initial meeting at the dawn of a new year, the young couple bound by their mutual physical attraction for one another spend a lot of time in each other’s company. Some nights are spent in Walter’s bachelor digs in Hampstead, but mostly it is Liza’s Chelsea flat, in which they spend the Spring. Their love is new and fresh and the two of them go to parties, eat at restaurants and drive out to the countryside on idyllic day trips. One weekend, the couple visit a remote English village and spend the night at a local pub. Liza slips on a wedding band, for the sake of respectability but on the trip, she discovers to her mortification, that Walter had spent a previous Christmas, in the company of a married woman, staying at the same pub. Rather than express her grievances and woes, throughout the course of the novel, we witness Liza keeping her real thoughts to herself. Whenever we see her expressing any kind of true feeling and emotion, Walter reacts with annoyance, and that deters Liza from speaking out. 

At the beginning of summer, Walter has the sudden urge to leave his work at the law office and spend time working on his novel. He persuades Liza to leave her job, lease her flat to friends and they decide to rent a small cottage in the countryside, where nobody will know about them. The cottage comes with a sleepy village, where the shopkeepers call Liza, Mrs Latimer. Their only neighbours are another couple, Kate and her husband – the latter works in London and comes down to the country on weekends. Kate soon guesses from closely observing the couple that Liza and Walter aren’t really married. Kate and Walter form a close bond with one another, continually teasing and bickering with one another. Liza continually doubts whether Walter and Kate’s feelings runs deeper than it appears, although she never finds any incriminating evidence against Walter. Liza slaves over the housework during the hot summer whilst Walter procrastinates with writing his novel. 

After a summer of lassitude on Walter’s part, he rather selfishly decides to escape to the Continent in the Autumn, to France, while Kate holidays elsewhere in Europe. Liza, decides to return to her Aunt Vi and spend time with the family on their summer holidays at the seaside. To pass the time and escape from her loneliness she painstakingly reads Walter’s copy of ‘Titus Andronicus’. Liza, frequently picks up books from Walter’s bookshelves – sometimes a detective novel, sometimes Shakespeare, once Walter’s Everyman copy of Shakespeare’s Historical Plays, Songs and Sonnets. Perhaps she reads these books to educate herself, to escape the boredom of everyday life, or to impress Walter. However, it’s interesting to notice that Liza tries so hard to mould herself according to Walter’s likes and dislikes. 

After their Autumn holidays apart, Liza fully expects to move back to London, live with Walter and take up a job again. There is also that desperate hope and expectation that Walter will propose marriage to her. However, Walter unexpectedly takes up a job at boys’ boarding school and is rarely available. Liza deeply upset tries to salvage the remnants of her past life – her secretarial job and her old apartment in Chelsea. One can feel the sense of comfort she gains in reestablishing herself in her old digs and working with the same group of people. This feeling of sameness helps to alleviate the gnawing sense of unhappiness that Walter’s neglect is causing her. Whilst visiting her Aunt Vi, she meets a young man called David, who is the nephew of one of her Aunt’s neighbours. With David, Liza finds a sense of peace and happiness. David is everything that Walter is not. He is solid, respectful, considerate, kind and reliable. Although Walter is charming and handsome, he is largely absorbed in his own world and prioritises his own thoughts and desires. 

Liza after the course of one tumultuous year, finds herself at a crossroads, where she must be strong and make a decision about what she wants in life. If she speaks out and tells Walter what she thinks of him, or what she desires from their relationship, she faces the risk of losing him. 

Set at the fag end of the 1930’s with the prospect of war looming on the horizon, ‘One Year’s Time’ is quite a modern novel and quite openly addresses the subject of sexual relationships outside the context of marriage and its social acceptability at the time. That this kind of relationship was not the norm is evident from the many instances in the novel that Liza tries to keep up the appearance of being a married woman. Whilst the reader knows that Liza wishes wholeheartedly to become a married woman, the same cannot be said for Walter. Whilst Walter’s ideas might represent that of a set of people of London society of the time, one can’t help but feel that these ideas fit in well with Walter’s own, rather selfish needs and wants. Though aware of Liza’s inner unspoken expectations and feelings, he chooses to ignore them, instead convincing her that they both want a casual relationship without marriage. The veneer of charm that Walter always exudes, at least when he is getting his own way, blinds Liza to the nature of their rather one-sided relationship. Deeply penetrating, intimate, soul searching and sometimes heartbreaking, Angela Milne explores in great detail the intricate workings of a woman’s mind when she is grappling for a sense of emotional security. 

What makes the book even more than an emotional lesson in relationship dynamics is the beautiful writing, the descriptions of home and the workplace, the warm sense of comfort in spending Christmas with family in an English village and most of all – the sense of peace and contentment in a relationship where both individuals are loving and giving. 

‘One Year’s Time’ is certainly a special book to read for those people who appreciate the complex landscape of human relationships. Written by the niece of AA Milne, one can’t help wishing, this compelling writer had written more. Thanks to Simon David Thomas for uncovering this gem.  

Many thanks to the British Library Publishing Group for the gift of this review copy. As always, all thoughts are my very own.

‘The Home’ by Penelope Mortimer

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‘The Home’ by Penelope Mortimer is about the internal struggles of a woman to build a home for her family in the aftermath of the breakup of a 25 year old marriage. Under the scrutiny of her grown up children, elderly mother and mother in law, Eleanor desperately grapples to come to terms with her new life – a life strangely bereft of any kind of emotional support. This novel is reflective of the early 1970’s, when separation sometimes left a dependant woman, unable to earn a living or fend for herself and in this particular instance, unable to reconcile herself to a life without a husband, even if he was unfaithful.

The novel starts with Eleanor and her youngest son moving out of their current home to live in a house, provided by her husband in the London neighbourhood of St John’s Wood. Leaving nothing but a few bits of furniture – Eleanor tries to create a home in the empty newness of a large house. Her husband Graham, is a successful doctor, treating his innumerable rich patients and attending to their varied levels of neuroses with different drugs. Graham, a serial adulterer leaves his marriage of 25 years, five children and wife Eleanor, for a much more youthful version of Eleanor – a young girl called Nell (they even have the same name) Partwhistle. Most of the children are adults and have flown away from the parental nest, there is only one teenage son, Phillip who spends most of his time at boarding school. 

Unable to reconcile herself to her single fate, Eleanor meets old flames in hopes of rekindling relationships and even harbours wild romantic dreams of dating men who have paid her attention in the past. None of these men are right for her, in fact in an embarrassing turn of events, an old lover starts sleeping with one of her daughters. The romantic heroes of her dreams fail to keep their dates. Even when Eleanor goes on a date with the father of one of her son’s classmates, she feels a strange emotional disconnect with her sexual self and can only think of Graham, her husband. 

Eleanor’s helplessness, her adult children’s level of self-absorption and her youngest son’s decision to run away and join a group of revolutionaries in a far off land feels like the ultimate betrayal. Eleanor is forced to rethink the meaning of home and what it means to her. 

‘Home’ is a beautifully written, absorbing and often heart wrenching portrayal of a defeated woman. A woman who nobody cares about. A woman for whom independence, self-worth and ‘home’ seem like empty words – when all she wants at the end of the day is her husband, even if he has never been true to her. One does question Eleanor’s behavior and attitude during the course of the novel. Does she choose to ignore her husband’s serial infidelities in order to live a comfortable life at home? But we find that Eleanor doesn’t find money a major motivator in life. When Graham fails to send her money when her funds run short, she’s not angry or up in arms. She’s merely very bewildered because she has no clue how to manage financial needs and wants. At the heart of the matter, she wants to fill the emptiness of a single life, and for her Graham is still the person who can do that for her.

Achingly sad and beautifully written, ‘The Home’ examines the meaning of home in a context from the past, but which I am sure will resonate with women, even today.

Thank you to the British Library for the press copy for review and for always providing fresh food for thought.

Visitors from London by Kitty Barne for #1940club

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Visitors from London by Kitty Barne

The following is a guest review from my 11 year old daughter, Meli. As part of the #1940club (from Simon at stuckinabook.com and Karen at kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com), readers are selecting books published in the year as part of a group reading and reviewing collective. This rare children’s book by author Kitty Barnes, is the second in the Farrar Family, after ‘Family Footlights’, series, and won the prestigious Carnegie award.
We hope you enjoy Meli’s review. Please leave her a comment below about your favourite children’s book. She will be so thrilled.

Meli’s Book Review for Visitors From London

The story of the ‘Visitors from London’ is about four children who live in London and have come to stay in the country with their Aunt Myra for the holidays.

Aunt Myra is a very easy-going person, so the children, Gerda, David, Jimmy and Sally think they will have a wonderful time in the country, just relaxing and spending time with her. Little do they know – they are in for a surprise!
The children and Aunt Myra also have a friend, Roly Martingale, who happens to be an author, and lives in the country. But, due to the war, Roly is not staying in his large, beautiful, country home – Steadings.
Hoping to do his bit to help with the war, Roly has leant Steadings to the Women’s Voluntary Services for evacuated children.

However this means he has to rely on his young friends the Farrars, to help him with cleaning the old house from top to bottom.

The children and Aunt Myra leap bravely to the front with dusters and buckets, and Aunt Myra makes all the arrangements for the evacuated children. All preparations are made for the young evacuees, because Roly absentmindedly told them that children were coming to stay at Steadings.

Instead, when the children clattered into Steadings, the Farrars were amazed! There were different families with children and grown ups mixed!!

However the Farrars accept this challenge and work to make life pleasant for the new people. But there is a slight problem. The new people are not willing to give up their town ways.

Fred, a difficult young boy, who likes disrupting people and plans, finds peace and comfort in being with the shepherd.

Queenie is at the height of her youth, and dislikes manual labour, and is horrified to find that she is expected to pitch in and do her share of the dirty work.

These are just two of the problems. What with hot tempered Lily and sly Mrs Fell, the children must juggle a lot of problems.

Will they be able to cope with the challenge – or will they have to face ignominious defeat?

‘Visitors from London’ is about how four children and their friends accepted a challenge, to make a home in the country for evacuated people from London. This book is written and set in 1940 and portrays what life must have been like for people during that time, when many suffered due to the war.

This delightful family story is the second book in this series of fun-filled books. I got to read the first book in the series, Family Footlights, when I was 9 years old.
Kitty Barne’s books are always a favourite with me, because I appreciate family stories with a hint of adventure. The illustrations in this wonderful book are all done by Ruth Gervis.