The Bachelor – Stella Gibbons (1944)

What took me so long to get back to Stella Gibbons. I chose The Bachelor because I do love a World War two novel – especially when it was written during the war rather than after. It adds an extra dimension to know the author couldn’t know exactly what might happen or when, though perhaps by 1944 the writing was on the wall.

During the war owners of large homes in the country were obliged to take in lodgers from the bomb besieged towns and cities – putting the homeowners under some strain. The Bachelor of the title – Kenneth Fielding, and his sister Constance own Sunglades; a large seven-bedroom house not far from London, though far enough to protect them from the worst of the bombing. They are a middle-aged pair, Constance in her early fifties, Kenneth around forty-seven, a little set in their ways things have gone along unchanged for years. With them lives a spinster cousin Frankie Burton, who nurses the memory of her one romance when she was a young woman, as a woman once jilted, Frankie is the household expert on matters of the heart. Miss Burton has a little voice in her head – that she thinks of as The Usurper – who is sometimes responsible for a tart remark or a little mischief. Frankie was definitely my favourite character in the book, she often seems the kindest too. Kenneth too once had a romance, and Constance who considers her brother unsuited to marriage is thankful that nothing came of it.

Constance is a complex character; a woman of high ideals, known for filling the house with foreign lodgers and promoting international understanding. More recently the household had a small family evacuated from London – who had proved rather a trial – and it might not be long before another family take their place. Constance is also a pacifist, and disapproves strongly of the war, much to the disgust of her daily woman Mrs Archer.

“Miss Fielding, of course, would have preferred to take no notice of the raids. She was without imagination and was not afraid of bombs. She thought of the Luftwaffe as Misguided, like the rest of the German nation, but felt no personal rancour towards it: she ignored it; she mentally brushed it aside like a tiresome fly and looked vaguely forward to the day when English and Germans would enjoy a hearty laugh together over the time when they were silly enough to bomb each other’s towns.”

Kenneth is a rather lovely man, gentle, old fashioned and principled himself – his greatest happiness was when he was in the army, he served in the first war. Now a middle-aged solicitor, Kenneth serves with the Home Guard – one of many things pacifist Connie must ‘close her eyes to’. He is harried somewhat by his older sister, and when he can, he escapes to his little walled vegetable garden with its ancient greenhouse taking pleasure in his hard work.

To prevent being landed with more strangers from London, Constance decides to fill up her empty bedrooms with people of her own choosing.

The first of these is Vartouhi Annamatta, a refugee from the fictional country of Bairamia, who comes to Sunglades as a kind of ‘mother’s help’. She is a picture of pure youth, and goodness – smiling, capable and not afraid of hard work. Soon enough we see her differently, quick tempered and self-serving, she’s a bit of a minx – (her broken English becomes a bit wearisome – but it’s a small gripe). Stella Gibbons, however obviously thinks that Vartouhi’s faults (of youth, brought with her from another culture) can be tempered if she were only to settle down with the right person – hmm!

Betty Marten; an attractive widow in her mid-forties, an old family friend has written to Constance asking if she could possibly put her up. Betty, a widow since the First World War, is the old flame of Kenneth’s which worries Connie a little, still better an old friend than a stranger. Soon Betty is installed and soon after her son Richard joins the household, twenty-five, a handsome young actor ruled out of war service by his health. When local party girl and world weary cynic Alicia Arkwright accidently runs over Richard’s foot, he is obliged to take advantage of the Fielding’s hospitality for several weeks.

Richard takes one look at Vartouhi and falls head over heels. Alicia can’t help but cast her jaundiced eye over Richard – despite having been badly hurt following a scandalous affair with a married man. Vartouhi is more impressed with Kenneth’s medals than Richard’s handsome young face while Betty and Kenneth quickly re-establish their old easy friendship. Kenneth begins to find some solace in the company of Vartouhi, he appreciates her simple old-fashioned qualities, and is able to calm her rages with kindness, and enjoys indulging her with pretty gifts. Constance views all of this with great disapproval, while worrying over the non-appearance of letters from Gustave Stocke – who she has been writing to for over a decade. Suddenly into the household comes old Eustace Fielding, Constance and Kenneth’s disreputable old father. Seventy-six, and still involved in nightclubs, the man who left their mother years earlier, has a definite twinkle in his eye – a eye that comes to rest on Betty.

Miss Burton watches all these possible romantic machinations with amusement and understanding. She likes Vartouhi and defends her to Constance when the girl incurs her wrath, she also believes that Kenneth should start defying his domineering older sister. Kenneth is a quiet man, but he is just about ready to start doing just that.

We are reminded of the devastating impact upon London and other cities when Kenneth pays a visit to London.

“He walked quickly down the High Street, past the ruinous gaping spaces where houses had been and the little shops showing gaudy dresses in brief brilliant display of colour and light before the black-out came down. Low grey clouds scudded over the sky and the wind was freezing. It was a city of shabbiness and ruins, battered, scarred and dismal beyond belief; and he did not see the honour and pride and courage that covered it like the violet blue veil of the spring dusk. To Kenneth, cheap shops were cheap shops and ruins were ruins, and a beastly evening was a beastly evening. Except during the 1914 war, his life had been passed in pleasant places and he had never had to look for beauty in the heart of squalor.”

Despite its 420 pages The Bachelor is a really quick read, deeply engaging, with its wonderful cast of characters, it is a compelling read. I loved the wartime details – eating Maltesers in the shelter Kenneth had defied his sister to build, everyone wrestling with the blackout – Mrs Archer taking the day off work to celebrate her son’s medal.

I recently got very confused with which Stella Gibbons I had read and which I hadn’t (I got Westwood and Nightingale Wood mixed up). The recent examination of my tbr revealed I have Here be Dragons, The Matchmaker and Westwood tbr – I anticipate them eagerly.