I have loved Winifred Holtby’s novels and stories – and so I have saved the one novel I had of hers to read for about three years. On reflection that may have been a mistake – don’t misunderstand me – I did like The Land of Green Ginger – there is plenty to admire in it – but it isn’t her best work –and I perhaps had built it up rather in my mind saving it like I did.
Winifred Holtby’s most famous novel – and undoubtedly her best was of course South Riding, a novel I shall re-read one day, it is brilliant. South Riding was the novel Holtby poured her all into when she knew she didn’t have long to live, that intensity of purpose pours off the pages of that novel. If you only ever read one Holtby novel, make sure it is South Riding. The Land of Green Ginger was written earlier in 1927, and to me it certainly reads like a slightly less mature work. What wonders we might have had from her had she not died so tragically young in 1935 – we shall never know.
I was particularly delighted to discover that The Land of Gree Ginger is a real place – a tiny street in the old town area of Kingston upon Hull.
Joanna Burton was born in South Africa, though following her mother’s death she is sent to England, Yorkshire to be raised by a couple of spinster aunts. Here, Joanna lives very much in her head – dreaming of far of places, and the adventures she would have if she were to visit them. One day just before Christmas when Joanna is eight, she walks through the streets of Kingsport with her aunts looking for Commercial Lane; they come upon The Land of Green Ginger, a dark, narrow little street, one turn before the one they seek. Joanna is captivated by the name.
“To be offered such gifts of fortune, to seek Commercial Lane and to find – the day before Christmas Eve and by lamplight too – The Land of Green Ginger, dark, narrow, mysterious road to Heaven, to Fairy Land, to anywhere, anywhere, even to South Africa, which was the goal of all men’s longing, the place where Father lived in a rondavel, the place…
Her aunts were moving away. Relentlessly, majestically, with skirts well lifted from the muddy road, and firm boots laced against the slithery grease of the pavement, they moved forward.”
At school she meets two girls of a likeminded adventurous spirit, Agnes and Rachel. Together they dream of the places they will go, the things they will see. However life seldom goes exactly as we think it will, and while the suffragette cause turns Rachel’s head – Joanna has her eighteen year old head turned by a handsome young man who tells her he has been given the world to wear as a golden ball. Teddy Leigh plays right into Joanna’s romantic imagination. The First World War has started however, and despite Teddy’s medical history of TB he is passed fit- and heads off to the trenches. During the years of WW1 Joanna becomes a mother to Patricia and Pamela and despite the realities of motherhood during wartime, still Joanna dreams.
When Teddy returns from the war – his lungs are further damaged, and despite having once wanted the life of a clergyman – he settles for life as a farmer – a role no one really believes he is fit for. The romance in Teddy that had won Joanna’s heart has been killed by the war, and the necessity of living on a farm. Joanna’s reality is a harsh one, a sick husband, two young children a farm to run, still Joanna’s imaginative mind can see fun and adventure in all things. Times are hard, money is scare and Joanna fears her eldest daughter may have inherited Teddy’s consumptive lungs. She is an unconventional housewife, effervescent and optimistic – I couldn’t help but love Joanna.
“It was no good. The time would come when all that Joanna wanted to do was to sail away, either alone or with a real friend, whose feelings she did not have to consider at all. She wanted to open her port-hole one morning and see against the sky the faint outline of an island, iridescent as a bubble on the grey water. She wanted to lean out above tossing blue-green waves and catch the end of a string thrown to her by dark, smiling men, and haul up from baskets bananas pulled that morning on the green island. She wanted to climb terraces, frothing over with purple bougainvillea and splashed with scarlet hibiscus, and scented with magnolia.”
Teddy and Joanna struggle to fit themselves into their local society – geographically a little removed from the village – they also fall somewhere between the gentry and the working people of the village.
The local gentry – with whom Joanna and Teddy enjoy a glorious evening, decide to use their influence to help the couple who they can see are struggling. Nearby is a camp of refugees – Czechs, Hungarians, Romanians who have caused some disquiet already among the locals – but when Sir Wentworth Marshall suggests that the camp’s Hungarian interpreter goes to the Leigh farm as a paying guest – Joanna jumps at the chance – after all his rent will be invaluable. Joanna and her daughters had already caught a glimpse of Paul Szermai – who Joanna privately calls Tam Lin – once more weaving fairy tales around the everyday. Paul Szermai – embittered, Cambridge educated like Teddy – is another man damaged by war – he comes to spend greater amounts of time with Joanna – and tells her his story of the war years – stories filled with rebels, revolution and his one lost love that haunts him.
“Their language was an old wild language. They had known incredible loves and dark adventures and the twisted streets of alien cities. They had known the green breaking waves of the sea, and the green aisles of the silent forests. They had known war and death and fierce, cruel elation.”
As Teddy’s health worsens – Joanna sends her little girls to her aunts so she can concentrate on her husband and the farm. It’s inevitable in the situation that misunderstandings arise, and gossip in the village turns spiteful.
This novel is about the realities of life set against the dreams, dreamt by men damaged by war and the women who care for them. There are many small tragedies in this novel which make it more poignant than I am used to in Holtby. Holtby however will not allow Joanna’s spirit and zest for life to be wasted – and so the reader is left – very thankfully – with the impression that the end of this story is really just the beginning of another one.
I’ve never read anything by Winifred Holtby, but she’s on my radar as a result of her connection to Vera Brittain and A Testament of Youth. It’s a pity The Land of Green Ginger wasn’t her best, especially as you’d saved it for a while…
The Land of Green Ginger while not Holtby’s best is still worth reading but you should definitely read South Riding if nothing else.
Jacqui, try reading Brittain’s ‘Testament of Freindship’, which is about her relationship with Holtby. If you liked the earlier book you should enjoy this as well.
I have South Riding waiting for me …..
Shame Green Ginger didnt live up to all the expectations you had for it. thats the issue isn’t it with what I call my rainy day books; the ones you save up for ‘a special occasion’ because you really believe they are going to be special. I’ve done this with Adichie’s Half a Yellow Sun and I really hope that it does turn out special
I hope you like Half of a Yellow Sun it’s very good I think. My expectations were probably too great although I still liked it very much.
South Riding is on my Classics list, feel even more thrilled to read now (but shame about Green Ginger). Thanks for the review and know that feeling of disappointment when you’ve been saving something and when you finally get there…it doesn’t live up to expectations. Hope you have something good lined up next…
Thank you – it wasn’t exactly disappointing I think I just built it up too much. Still a slightly lesser Holtby is still very good indeed.
My feelings about this book were very much like yours; and I agree with you about the end of the story. And I wondered of there was a grand plan in Winifred Holtby’s mind that she didn’t live long enough to complete, given that she used the name Burton again in ‘South Riding’.
Oh yes of course Sarah was Sarah Burton, I had forgotten that.
I’ve got Green Ginger on my TBR bought purely for its name as there is a renovated church in Tynemouth called The Land of Green Ginger with craft & antique shops/stalls & cafe we used to visit often when at the coast… shame it’s not lived up to your expectations – my only Holtby I think – may be worth skipping!
It is still worth reading a slightly lesser Holtby is still very good indeed.
I confess that although I have this and several Holtbys on my TBR I’ve still to read them. Sorry that this wasn’t as good as you expected – that does happen sometimes when we’re keen to read a book!
Yes it does happen and I probably should have expected that. You must read Holtby one day.
I’m sure I will!
I was quite disappointed by with this one too, but I have the same edition and love the cover.
The covers of these editions are lovely.
Have you read her journalism and essays some of which can be found in Testament of a Generation? Much as I love her fiction I think these are her greatest works.
No not read her journalism, know she was well thought of. Might look out for it – thanks.
And dont forget her poetry. Like many women she wrote poetry during and after the Great War. Much ignored now, but available in a Virago collection called Scars upon my Heart.
I love the character of Joanna, dreaming, yearning for a more exotic life. And although this book does not have the rich tapestry of South Riding, it is less preachy, and important in books about women pushing off the expectations of the inter-war years.
Readers seem to have picked up on your disappointment and perhaps exaggerated it.
You did a great summary of the plot. There is lots to enjoy in this novel. I also reviewed it about 12 months ago.
Caroline (Bookword)
Thank you – yes I was only disappointed in the context of her other novels. Overall it is a good novel. I think I knew she wrote poetry – but had forgotten.
Annoying – my original comments got lost. Try again.
I really enjoyed this novel when I reviewed it just over a year ago. I especially like the character of Joanna, yearning for a more exotic life. I see this novel as impoprtant in the inter-war years when women struggled to become what they wanted.
Your readers seem to have amplified your disappointment. I also loved South Riding, but this book is less preachy I think.
Dont forget her poetry, and other women who wrote poems during and after the Great War. They are largely ignored now, but Virago published a collection called Scars upon my Heart.
So sad that she died so young.
Caroline (Bookword)
They weren’t lost – just had to be moderated. Thanks for taking time to comment twice. 😊
I have Anderby Wold to read this year I hope and I want to get hold of a copy of Testament of a Friendship, I really want to read this one, because I’m interested in her writing journey and the link it has to her past, even if it isn’t her best work. They are such fascinating subjects Vera and Winifred, it feels like more of a tribute to be reading their work, than just for mere pleasure.
So glad you have continued to read her, fabulous review Ali.
Oh yes this still very much worth reading – I seem to have inadvertently put people off – it’s still good it’s just not South Riding. I liked Anderby Wold very much.
I read this a few years ago and I did enjoy it, but definitely not as much as the wonderful South Riding, which is the only other Holtby novel I’ve read to be able to compare it with. I have a copy of Poor Caroline which I’m hoping to read this year.
Now I really enjoyed Poor Caroline, hope you do.
I was pleased to see your comments about South Riding, as that’s the Holtby I have on my TBR pile….maybe I will get to it this year 🙂
It’s a bittersweet accomplishment to read all the books of one of your favourite authors. You have the pleasure of the reread but no new titles to anticipate.
Thankfully there’s always another new-to-you author to discover!
Oh yes that’s true – so many still to discover, always exciting.
I started this as my first Holtby last year, but really couldn’t get into it so I read Anderby Wold instead (which I loved). I’ll probably read this at some point, but I’ll read her others first. I love her writing about rural life and farms.
I really liked Anderby Wold too.
I think you must have had it since 2011 when you gave me a duplicate copy! My review is here, saying pretty much the same thing, but in less detail https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/book-reviews-8/ I still have Poor Caroline to go and don’t even have a copy of it yet …
2011 really wow perhaps I have had it that long. I read Poor Caroline, I really liked it.
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