‘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.

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.

‘Beneath the Visiting Moon’ is the story of the fatherless Fontayne family, who live in a sleepy English town, in a sprawling family home that has seen better days. Marcus Fontayne’s widow Elisabeth, is very poor and long gone are the glorious heydays of cultural life at the family home Fontayne, when Fontayne was described as the ‘Mount Olympus’ of culture, and the gifted Marcus Fontayne very much at the helm of things, encouraging the development of new ideas and artistic endeavours. After Marcus’ death, the family home is in decline, the family live in genteel poverty and the bills that arrive in the post every day, induce Elisabeth to escape into her garden for temporary reprieve. Selling the family home seems an inevitability.
Quite unexpectedly, she falls in love with a musician, Julian Jones, a widower himself with two older children, Bronwyn and Peter. The two unlikely families are forced to cohabit at Fontayne, and learn to adapt themselves to becoming a conjoined family.

This is the story of a spring and summer in their lives, a summer tinged with the highs and lows of first love for Sarah. A summer full of listlessness and inaction for others, whilst everyday the newspapers yielded frightening and threatening prophecies of upcoming war.
Moreover, it is the story of the disappearance of a way of life, that dissolved when the Second World War started. It is the story of the dissolution of the grand old English aristocracy, with their sprawling houses, green gardens and glorious, carefree, champagne filled life.

‘Beneath the Visiting Moon’ introduces us to a large and unusual family – the Fontaynes. They consist of Elisabeth Fontayne, Marcus Fontayne’s widow, Sarah their eldest daughter, on the cusp of adulthood; Christopher, perennially away at boarding school and soon to be sent to Oxford, Philly his twin sister and young Tom, who lives a carefree existence, eating nursery lunches and suppers with Mrs Moody, the family seamstress, who has a lively tongue and gives unsolicited advice about the love affairs of the young girls. There are a few other people who oblige the Fontayne family with their services – a housekeeper, Mrs Rudge – the occasional charwoman, the inscrutable, loyal figure of the butler, who reportedly hasn’t been paid for years – all the old retainers powering together to keep up the appearance, traditions and daily rituals of the English country house. Alas, the family home is hopelessly dilapidated and money is dwindling. Elisabeth Fontayne is endlessly worried about the multitude of unpaid bills coming in and seeks refuge in the beauty of her garden and arrangement of flowers about the ancestral home.

“Elisabeth had a faint misgiving that there was something in the air as well as the insistent flower perfume. It wasn’t the world news, because she hadn’t looked at the papers this morning, and yesterday’s horrors had been quelled by sleep. Yesterday’s dismay were screened by the white lilies in white bud below the terrace.”

The eldest daughter Sarah is a hopeless romantic and spends her days day dreaming but even she realises that the family home needs to be sold. She falls hopelessly in love with a very charismatic much older man, Sir Giles Merrick, a member of the House of Commons, who gives beautiful young Sarah, a little bit of attention. His interest in Sarah, her father, the beautiful old house of Fontayne and her unusual family, is romanticised by Sarah to a great extent. Her days pass in anticipation of a letter from him and when later Sarah takes up a job in London it is with him, that Sarah yearns to spend time.

Philly (short for Philadelphia – Marcus Fontayne having embarked on a tour of America in his time), the younger sister, has a secret dread for men and inwardly hopes never to get married. She is hence horrified when she becomes the young muse of an avant garde artist in the village. Mr Lupin bullies her into sitting for her portrait drawing. Her encounters with Mr Lupin and her dread of his interest in her, are extremely funny and emphasize the fact that Cavan has a strong sense of humour. In fact, her strange and macabre characters and quirky humour were something that reminded me of ‘I Capture the Castle’ and ‘Guard Your Daughters’ and certainly explores in the same vein, large dysfunctional families.

Philly’s twin brother Christopher, spends much of his time away at boarding school and becomes fascinated by an outgoing and fashionable young woman called Virginia Welwyn who promises to take him flying one day. He meets her at the same time his sister Sarah meets Sir Giles at an Easter Ball. And last of all is young Tom with his attachment to Mrs Moody and his love for riding his bicycle.

One of the earliest, most dramatic events in the book comes with the discovery that Elisabeth Fontayne has fallen in love with Mr Jones and is expected to marry him shortly. Sarah expects that Mr Jones will bolster their flagging income in future (something that doesn’t happen) and the reader does derive the impression that Mr Jones provides Elisabeth with a sense of mental security (if not financial security) from the threats of impendingwar and instability. The Jones’ – merge into the fabric of everyday life in Fontayne but there are lots of adjustments and adaptations made by family members. Mr Jones brings his two children Bronwyn and Peter into the fold of the family at Fontayne. Bronwyn is a young opinionated writer, and Peter is a suave youth, very much trying to cast himself in the mould of a man about town.

Sarah, the eldest child is overcome with a desire to escape to London and earn her own living, in order to prove herself to the rest of her family. Part of the motivation is also to meet Sir Giles Merrick, whom she is hopelessly infatuated with. The anguish and torment of first love, Sarah’s obsession with Merrick and the rather one-sided correspondence between them, form a major plot point of the novel.

The descriptions of the unusual and slightly dysfunctional family members are an interesting part of ‘Beneath the Visiting Moon’. However, the grand old country house of Fontayne is a formidable character in itself. Descriptions of the many rooms, the beautiful and carefully tended garden, the dusty attics with unknown treasures and the once opulent but now decaying gilt ballroom are wonderful to read about.

I really loved the first few chapters that were set during Spring and Easter, especially because I quite serendipitously picked up the book at Easter time myself.

” Good Friday was the smell of hot-cross-buns and the aura of an almost pious tranquillity over the gardens and the contrast of the girls still busy with their sewing. Tom had an enormous chocolate Easter egg. The others said he was broody over it; he fondled it but wouldn’t dream of eating it.”

When the book slipped into the summer, the abundance of fruit and flowers in the garden, the planning of a grand ball to celebrate Sarah’s eighteenth birthday, especially during the last summer before the dreaded war, seemed like a glorious last hurrah for the beauty of the old English country house. In places one couldn’t help but marvel in the beauty of Cavan’ descriptive writing.

“The summer had its second wind. The roses, temporarily dispirited by the July rain, were now born again; and in rebirth were fuller, finer, more confident than before. From the upper windows of the house, the distant blotch of colour seemed freely mixed with Chinese white. Elisabeth loved these pale chalky tints that could be so opulent as well as delicate… Upfront the rose garden, this side of the posturing yes, tall shaggy hollyhocks made a bright little wilderness, with shadows lying in long lines like pilings overthrown. The wisteria bloomed again, hanging in great bunched drops in the formation of clustered grapes; opening in a minute intricacy of lapping petals, expanding and deepening in colour, and then slowly retracting, turning pale,meeting death halfway.”

The book title ‘Beneath the Visiting Moon’ is a nod the Shakespeare’s ‘Anthony and Cleopatra’. After Anthony has died, all the joy from Cleopatra’s life has disappeared. She finds life extremely dull and ordinary and hence comments:

“The soldier’s pole is fallen: young boys and girls

Are level now with men: the odds is gone,

And there is nothing left remarkable

Beneath the visiting moon.”

A marvellous tribute to bygone days, whilst ‘Beneath the Visiting Moon’ commemorates the old aristocratic way of life, it also enables us to acknowledge and appreciate that this time was one of most earth shifting change, when class structures where destroyed, cities were ruined, lives were lost, rules changed and an evening out of society was enabled.

This book review is written for the #1940club where readers choose titles published in 1940 and post reviews on social media. Many thanks to Simon and Karen for picking such an interesting year. A year where most writings had to acknowledge in some form or other, the outbreak of war, but when the outcome of war was unknown and therefore, unquestionably disturbing.

I finished the well written and dramatic last few chapters of ‘Death of an Author’ by E C R Lorac today, and was so impressed with my first foray into reading the works of this Golden Age Crime fiction writer. Thanks to the British Library for the review copy.

‘Death of an Author’ centres around the mysterious disappearance of a crime fiction writer, Vivian Lestrange, author of the highly acclaimed mystery novel ‘The Charterhouse Case’. A total recluse, Vivian Lestrange has never been seen in public and keeps his identity under wraps in a small house in a quiet London neighbourhood. His housekeeper, Mrs Fife, and his loyal secretary Eleanor, are the only people who have seen him face to face.
When Lestrange’s publishers try to coerce him into meeting another famous contemporary author, Michael Ashe, a meeting is arranged at the publisher’s house and lo and behold, Lestrange is shown to be none other than Eleanor Clarke.

At first Michael Ashe and the publishers are astounded that the author of ‘The Charterhouse Case should be a woman, but Miss Clarke, carries herself with such aplomb and her conversation is so full of spark and intelligence, that the men are taken aback with her wit and vivacity.
When a few weeks later, Eleanor Clarke turns up at Scotland Yard with the news that her employer, Vivian Lestrange has disappeared overnight without a trace and she strongly suspects murder, the police are in a quandary about who to believe. Clarke, tells the story of how Vivian Lestrange actually convinced her to pose as the author himself and meet his publishers and Michael Ashe. But now that he and the housekeeper Mrs Fife have disappeared and there is a neat shaped bullet hole in the window of his study, she realises what a terrible predicament she is in.

The Scotland Yard detectives Bond and Warner are sceptical about whether Clarke is telling the truth, or even the supposed death of the fictitious author. And then when a body, charred beyond recognition is found in a burnt down cottage in the remote English countryside, with a pocketbook with Lestrange’s handwriting on the person, it would seem that there is an element of truth in the reported death of the author.

The story subsequently undergoes many twists and turns, there are many red herrings planted throughout the plot line. The case is baffling to say the least and the crux of the matter lies in the fact – should the detectives believe Eleanor Clarke’s narrative or not?

The plot is interesting in the fact that the story is not only about whodunnit but also about motives for the crime and how it was executed.
There weren’t too many characters in the story as to be too befuddling and the story opens out in a lucid, easy to read style which I found made the narrative flow quite nicely.
I found ECR Lorac’s writing to be quite lovely too. Her descriptions of the English countryside were quite poetic and had a distinct sense of place. The romance of the final chase through multiple trains, from London to Brighton and then to seaside towns, breathed all the romantic charm of vintage travel.

Now that the drama is all over, and I’ve put the story to rest, you can be sure that I will be looking out for more books by this author.

The book was sent to me by the publishers but as always, all opinions are my own.

‘The Prince, The Showgirl and Me’ are a set of extracts from the Diaries of Colin Clark for the six months he was on the sets of a movie starring Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe. The movie, ‘The Prince and the Showgirl’ was shot in its entirety at Pinewood Studios, on the outskirts of London and Clark, despite being only the third assistant director for the film, was privy to all the ups and many downs of shooting the film.

The year was 1956 and Marilyn Monroe was the greatest sensation in the world of Western film. The recent success of the film ‘The Seven Year Itch’ and her sensational photographs standing astride a New York subway grate would catapult her fame to new heights. Sir Laurence Olivier was considered the greatest actor of the time. Not only did he have a formidable stage presence he had won an Oscar for the film direction of Hamlet in 1948. It seemed like the two would be perfectly paired to star in the film, in addition to Olivier directing.

‘The Prince and the Showgirl’ was based on the Terence Rattigan play, ‘The Sleeping Prince’ that had starred Laurence Olivier and his wife and renowned actress Vivien Leigh. The plot of the play has been described as ‘paper-thin’ in the preface – and briefly consists of the Regent of Carpathia falling in love with a showgirl during his Coronation preparations.

Laurence Olivier Productions would pair with Marilyn Monroe Productions to produce the film. It was necessary to shoot the film within a narrow window of time to reduce costs, and there was a great deal of tension regarding the punctuality and timely appearance of Marilyn Monroe in the mornings, known to be notoriously late.

Colin Clark, then a young man freshly out of college was the son of renowned art historian Kenneth Clark. Clark came from a background of privilege. Educated at Eton and Chdistchurch, his parents lived in Saltwood Castle in Kent, they knew several people in the entertainment industry, particularly Sir Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. One weekend when ‘Larry and Vivien’ came down to stay at Saltwood for the weekend, Colin’s Mother mentioned that Colin was enthusiastic about a future career in the film industry, to which Vivien Leigh persuaded Olivier to land him a job with his production company.

The following day, Colin visited Mr Hugh Perceval in Piccadilly- the offices of Laurence Olivier Productions. Through a combination of several weeks of dogged determination to secure a job, any kind of job, and remarkable initiative, Colin landed a position as third assistant director on the sets of ‘The Prince and the Showgirl’. Though being considerably low down in the pecking order and having to do trivial jobs, it is through his eyes that we gain an intimate, insider’s perspectives of the goings on of several months of filming on a set that was far from harmonious.

As with all Hollywood icons of the stature of Marilyn Monroe, there’s always a curiosity to know more about her. These diaries certainly provide a more close-up perspective of working with her. There was a considerable amount of tension between her and Laurence Olivier. Monroe never turned up at the expected time, early in the morning and would require several hours of hair and makeup before she was able to shoot. One gains a sense that all the other people on the set of the film were having to be accommodative of these difficulties.

Marilyn Monroe was newly wedded to the playwright Arthur Miller. Their relationship seems to not have been the smoothest with Miller leaving her mid shoot to return to the US.

On a personal level, I felt I gained quite a bit more insight into the process of shooting a film and how film making can be quite different from theatre production. Probably not as glamorous as it seems to us movie goers, I was impressed by the degree of discipline and hard work that making a film entails. Also, Colin Clark, presents quite a sympathetic picture of Monroe. He shows her vulnerability, her insecurities and the great deal of pressure she must have been under, shooting a film in a foreign country, on a set full of people, not always the most sympathetic towards her. With troubles in her personal life, this period must have been difficult for her.

Many thanks to the folks at Foxed Quarterly for sending me a copy of this diary for review. All opinions are my own.

When one picks up a Christmas anthology and flicks through the list of stories and authors, it’s not unusual to come across the old favourites – a bit of Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle, the Christmas excerpts from Little Women, perhaps something by Laurie Lee or Kenneth Williams. But for a Christmas story enthusiast, the need is always for something different.

Here’s a peek at a few of my favourite Christmas anthologies.

What is exceptional about the Christmas anthology from the British Library Women Writers collection is the selection of lesser known stories and some women authors – who at least for me, were largely unknown. 

The clever chronology of the stories also meant that the stories picked up on a wide range of Christmas activities – from Christmas shopping, Christmas preparation, carol singing concerts, pageants and pantomimes, decorating the tree, skating and much more. They could be read in one go or spread over the latter half of December and the New Year.

I approach a short story anthology a bit unconventionally. A bit like a pick and mix – one story here, one story there, a title that catches my fancy next. Unsurprisingly, I dived straight into EM Delafield’s ‘General Impressions of a Christmas Shopping Centre’ first, because I’m a huge Provincial Lady fan. The excerpt is Delafield at her anecdotal best – but I would have loved something more substantial from her. 

The rest of the stories were lovely too. I laughed at The Christmas Pageant by Barbara Robinson. I thought Ticket for a Carol Concert was wonderfully crafted. Christmas Bread was poignant and full of sentiment. Snow by Olive Wadsley was dreamy and intimate and beautifully romantic. Elizabeth von Arnim’s Christmas story set in Bavaria had the effect of transporting you to a winter wonderland, celebrating German traditions of Christmastimes of yore. A favourite was The Little Christmas Tree by Stella Gibbons. The descriptions of the tiny Christmas tree really caught my attention. Richmal Crompton penned such a clever, short, memorable story that made me smile at the end.

‘Snow’ by Olive Wadsley is a lovely ode to the romance of Yuletide. Set in a country house with a select gathering of friends and family at Christmas, a young couple, Viola and John, who are not apparently suited but who find themselves increasingly drawn to one another, expectantly look for a resolution to their burgeoning love on Christmas Day. Enter an old flame of Violas and implicatory footsteps in the snow and young love is very much threatened. There is a beautiful lyrical and tender atmosphere to this story and beautifully brings out the hopefulness and romance of the festive season. 

‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’ by Kate Nivison tells of the nighttime wanderings of a small mouse residing in a small household. The mother is snoozing in an armchair in the living room in front of the Christmas tree, waiting for quietness to fall on her house in order to fill her children’s stockings. She is eating a misshapen mince pie and boozy warm milk, presumably left out for Santa. The story exudes a sense of the 1980’s in its ambience – making it feel very much like a Christmas from my childhood.

I should mention that I like reading cosy stories for Christmas. ‘The Turkey Season’ by Alice Munro – didn’t fit that description – at least not for me – so I chose to skip that particular one. 

I don’t think it’s possible for a short story anthology to tick all the boxes – especially when a wide range of authors are selected. But I must say – ‘Stories for Christmas and the festive season’ by the British Library, really did that for me. This book was the highlight of Christmas reading season 2022 and I’m sure I’ll be reaching for it, during many Christmases in future. 

‘Clothes-Peg’ by Susan Scarlett is a Cinderella story of sorts about a young and innocent woman from a close knit but poor family, who falls in love with a wealthy Lord. The story is set in pre-war London in the atmosphere surrounding a popular fashion house, in London’s plush Mayfair neighbourhood. Family values, fashion, snobbery and period details abound in this nove, published in 1939.

‘Clothes-Peg’ by Susan Scarlett is part of a new series, to be released shortly by Dean Street Press, and is one of twelve much desired Susan Scarlett titles that had long been out of print. Many thanks to Dean Street Press for my advanced e book copy.

Susan Scarlett is the pen name of Noel Streatfeild and she wrote a collection of cosy, romantic novels that have quite a different appeal to her more serious novels for adults published under the name of Streatfeild.

It was a joy to finally be able to read a Scarlett novel. ‘Clothes-Peg’ is the first novel to be published under that name in 1939. The book is set in pre-war London and more particularly describes the life and times of several young girls, working in an acclaimed fashion house in Hanover Square of Mayfair. The clientele are rich and entitled but the young, attractive girls who serve as models in such establishments are hard up for money and are eager to earn any stray penny that makes it their way, by fair play or foul.

The story is centered around a family of modest means, the Browns, who live very far away from the glitz and glamour of Mayfair. The eldest daughter of the family, Annabel, upon leaving school, finds a job as a seamstress at Bertna’s. Whilst she is working there, shop owner, Tania Petoff tries her out as a shop model and she catches the attention of rich Lord David de Bett, who visits the establishment with soon to be fiancee, the Honourable Octavia Glaye. Fresh faced and innocent Annabel, makes David have second thoughts about his life choices and there ensues a story with a number of misunderstandings, wrong twists and turns.

At the heart of the story are the Browns – a loving, very close-knit family who have their share of troubles, are not over endowed with riches, but who know how to pull together in fair weather and foul. Streatfeild, writing under the pen name of Susan Scarlett, surely knows how to emphasize the importance of strong family values and the poverty of the Browns is often compared with the more, glitzy, racy lifestyle of the rich and famous in London, but sometimes to the detriment of the richer class. It’s certainly a book that examines the difference in class that existed at the time, along with inspection of morals and attitudes.

Let me describe the Brown family to you. Father George is hardworking and has worked in hardware for the longest time. Mother Ethel is outwardly always cheerful, putting a brave face on everything and putting away the pennies for the next family emergency. Annabel the eldest daughter cares about the needs and wants of her family but for the first time is discovering the outside world with all its wicked ways. There’s a brother and a very spoilt little sister who gets into trouble for shoplifting and they all live in a modest house with a small back garden. The family have their own routines and rituals and this aspect of their life is rendered in great detail. It reminded me a little of the family life described in RC Sherriff’s ‘The Fortnight in September’.

I personally loved little details of the Brown’s cosy family life. There were plenty of domestic details to be enjoyed : descriptions of the house, routines, family customs, gardening endeavours, the joy of family meals. The family have their share of troubles and that is described too. Mostly though, Streatfeild describes clothes in books so well. The details regarding garments worn in the fashion house are so well done and worthy of praise.

The book is a walk into the London of yesteryear with all its delectable period details. I’ve often felt while reading the book that it would make a lovely black and white movie and these books penned under the name of Susan Scarlett certainly have a cinematic appeal. There is a Cinderella like quality to this book that I glimpsed and enjoyed. I read this book when I was going through a very stressful time and it really helped me forget about my troubles for a while. Highly recommend, for that cosy, romantic, escapist read.

Many thanks to Dean Street Press for the gift of the ebook of Clothes-Peg

My Father was always the most difficult person to please when picking a book for him to read, from my personal library. This particular book was too descriptive, that book was too slow, another book had no plot or complicated language … and so every few weeks, a huge pile of unread books would be returned to me with a disappointed face. This would annoy me, no end.

And yet, there was one author who never failed to please my Dad; someone he would always read with pleasure … and that author was the Queen of Crime, the unparalleled genius that was Dame Agatha Christie. Every birthday and Christmas he was sure to be given one of these beautiful hardcover Christie classics and over the years – he had assembled quite a nice collection. Dad didn’t read a lot, but during lockdown and in later days, they were a huge source of comfort for him.

It seems strange to write about my Father in the past tense and somewhat naively, I had lead 46 years of my life believing that it was something I would not have to do … at least not in the near future.

The past two years had taken a toll on his health. First there was Covid and the following year, we found out that he had a malignant tumour in his throat and would need emergency surgery to remove it. The fight with cancer was long and hard. But he made a good recovery after several months, although he did lose his ability to speak. Ironically my Dad was an ear, nose and throat surgeon and had attended to numerous laryngectomy patients himself, throughout his long medical career.

Even though he lost his voice, my Dad never lost his ability to smile. I would often ask my Mum if he seemed sad and depressed and that wasn’t the case. He kept his days busy with a new found passion for gardening, cooking, reading and watching cricket.

He was the most uplifting and positive person in my life.

As a doctor, he would instil this positive spirit in the care he gave his patients. He took care of the poorest of the poor, sometimes visiting ailing people in slums and back alleys, even though they didn’t have the money for medical treatment.

My father was the life and soul of any party. My parents had an arranged marriage in India whilst my Dad was an NHS doctor in the UK. My mum went to England as a newly married wife to my Dad’s bachelor accommodation in Maidstone, Kent. She said, the entirety of his household possessions consisted of a large box of brightly colored felt pens and poster paper on which my Dad would announce news of hospital parties. In subsequent months, my parent’s landlady told my Mother thankfully that the doctor had calmed down a bit since getting married.

Last month, we had to rush him to the hospital in the middle of the night because he lost consciousness and his ability to move his left hand side. It was a scary time and despite the subsequent operation and days in the ICU I always believed that my Dad would rise again, like a phoenix from the ashes, as he had always done before that. We visited his bedside, day after day, willing him to open his eyes and gain consciousness. We talked to him about all the types of food he loved (he was a huge food lover) and I played him his favourite songs, day after day, but he decided to sleep on.

In the day’s following his cremation, I have an inexplicable feeling of surprise and wonder. As I walk the streets of our city, going about my daily life and mundane routines, I look all around me for the man who suddenly disappeared into the ether.

Is life truly this fragile and ephemeral?

Where has my father gone?

In the absence of any religious beliefs it is personally hard to reconcile oneself to the death of a loved one and their strange and mysterious disappearance.

I feel sad and cling on to the books he gave me, with his name written on the title page, the smiley pictures of him, the sound of his laugh in videos and the joy for living in his eyes. My father would not want me to be sad, I know for too long, because he was not a person to brood over things himself

And so, I’ll look for him in the world around me, the beautiful scent of the flowers that he loved, the trees that he would always be able to name, the taste of his best loved dishes, the sound of his favourite songs …

I noticed a beautiful spotted black and white butterfly the other day, weaving itself amongst the trees and the pink bougainvillea. I followed its motion and it flitted onward and made me look upward, towards the light in the blue monsoon sky. For me, my Dad lives on in all the beautiful things around me, he lives on in me as I write these words, and in Meli’s lilting voice, that she inherited from him, as she sings the songs of the seasons that have passed and which will recur in an ever moving cycle of life into the future …

It is some consolation …