Revisiting old friends for the 1956 club

My intention had been to read and review two books for the #1956club – but I am already having to acknowledge a failure. I am currently drawing to the end of The Last Resort by Pamela Hansford Johnson – review later in the week – but that will have to be my only contribution. I am reading too slowly to manage anything else and I really do have to read my book group choice in time for next Monday.

However, 1956 really is a very good year, and looking back through my own old blog posts I realised what a wonderful variety of books had come my way from that year. There are a few that are probably already well known to regular readers of this blog, books I fully expect to see mentioned elsewhere this week. Gerald Durrell’s My Family and Other Animals, The Towers of Trebizond by Rose Macaulay, Tea at Four O’clock by Janet McNeill, Agatha Christie’s Dead Man’s Folly and The King of the Rainy Country by Bridget Brophy would all be fabulous picks for this week, but I want to take a look back at a few other books from that year.

So, whether you’re looking for inspiration for things to read this week – or at just some other time – here’s another list – seeing as you all so liked the last one.

The Visiting Moon by Celia Furse

First read in December 2015, The Visiting Moon by Celia Furse is a kind of fictional memoir. Its Christmassy theme making it a lovely seasonal read. A beautiful illustrated edition came my way from on online second-hand bookseller – though I first heard about the book from another blogger. Admittedly I was puzzled about whether this was really a memoir or a novel – I decided the later – but in a sense it doesn’t matter. The story of an eleven year old girl sometime in the mid-nineteenth century paying a two week Christmas visit to her grandparents’ house certainly feels very autobiographical.

 Antonia is the young girl at the centre of this novel; she is an immediately engaging character, a spirited, lively child bubbling over with affection and enthusiasm. That infectious wonder that childhood and Christmas bring together never gets tired I don’t think. Antonia begins the book a little sad – abandoned she feels by her parents, but on her grandparents’ estate she is surrounded by a host of relatives. Soon, Tony as she is usually called is swept up by her enormous caring family. Her holiday is one of Christmas celebrations, snow falls, tobogganing and children’s parties. It’s a delightful picture of a nineteenth century childhood Christmas.

A Lighthearted Quest by Ann Bridge

First read in July 2013. Perhaps best known for her novels Illryian Spring and Peking Picnic (both very good) Ann Bridge also wrote a series of books about a part time British intelligence agent/part time reporter, and traveller Julia Probyn. Ann Bridge is very good at writing about far flung locations – and A Lighthearted Quest, the first in the series is set in the French administered Morocco of the 1950’s. Julia Probyn’s childhood playmate and cousin Colin Munro has disappeared, last heard of in Morocco and believed to be still there, somewhere. Julia is asked by his mother and sister to use her cover as a journalist to track him down and press him to return home, where he is needed to run the family’s Scottish estate. Julia gets passage aboard a small cargo boat and aboard meets the first of a host of memorable characters. Once in Morocco she is greeted by a wall of silence when she starts to ask about Colin. This is the only Julia Probyn book I have read as yet, but she really is a great character and as I do have the other books on my kindle I really should get round to reading the rest.

Every Eye by Isobel English

First read in March 2017. A slim Persephone book, Every Eye is another novel with a wonderful sense of place. Despite its slimness this is a book which has a surprising amount in it – not so much in plot as in its exploration of the characters, moving back and forth in time. Hatty is a woman in her thirties recently married to a younger man, and about to go off on their delayed honeymoon. On the eve of their departure Hatty hears that Cynthia has died (a few pages later we learn Cynthia had married her uncle 19 years earlier). It is six years since Hatty cut herself free of Cynthia – the novel is an exploration of this relationship – and others – and the impact these relationships have upon her.

As Hatty and Stephen travel by train through Europe toward their holiday destination, Hatty reflects on her relationship with Cynthia, her Uncle Otway who Cynthia married, and the relationship she had in her twenties with a much older man. The story switches back and forth between the present and the past, Isobel English’s writing is superb. I had been told that the novel’s final line is one of those that make you catch your breath – but of course I have now forgotten it – so I shall be off to look it up later.

The Half-crown House by Helen Ashton

First read in January 2016. I had seen mixed reviews for this one, but already a Helen Ashton fan I sought out an old battered copy. It is a slow burn of a novel, but I ended up thoroughly enjoying it. It’s one of those novels that takes place over an entire day.

On Saturdays and Wednesdays between April and the end of October Fountain Court is open to the public –for an entrance fee of half a crown. The household staff and members of the Hornbeam family who live there act as guides to keep down the costs. The novel opens on the 30th October 1954 – the last day of the year that Fountain Court will be open before the long winter break. It is a busy day – the small group of visitors paying their half-crowns to look around just the least of it. Living in the old house now are just two of the remaining Hornbeam family – Henrietta – still mourning the death of her beloved twin brother during the war, and her grandmother, the dowager Lady Hornbeam.

The son of Henrietta’s brother is coming to live with his father’s family, Cousin Charles injured in the war is home and now living above the stables and helping out. Nanny is excited to have a child to care for again, and the butler is preparing for an important lunch.

Although the action, such as it is – takes place on one day – a day heralding great change – the past weaves in and out of the 30th October 1954 through the stories we hear of the past. Memories are shared and recounted, stories that include a Queen’s visit, a disastrous marriage, several family tragedies and scandals.

An Episode of Sparrows by Rumer Godden

First read January 2015. I always think Rumer Godden writes about childhood perfectly. An Episode of Sparrows was a surprisingly emotional read, but I absolutely loved it. I have seen An Episode of Sparrows referred to as a young adult or even a children’s book, although Wikipedia lists it in amongst Rumer Godden’s adult novels and having read it I think it fits there more comfortably. To me it certainly doesn’t read as a children’s book (although nothing in the content would preclude a child reading it) but more, as a book for adults about children.

Set in London sometime after the Second World War, among the street children who run up and down the grim, unloveliness of Catford Street, An Episode of Sparrows shows poignantly the simple joy that a garden can bring. At the end of Catford Street, is a gracious London square, a square of houses of an altogether different kind, they have a very pleasant garden, a gardener and a gardening committee. Catford Street is a place where nothing very much ever grows, the children there are small and scrawny, running wild, gathering in gangs in the bomb damaged ruins that still litter the street.

Lovejoy Mason is a tough little nut, a child more ridiculously named it is hard to imagine, as there is little love or joy in her life. She lives with Mrs Combie and her husband, with whom Lovejoy’s mother lodges when she is home – which she seldom is. Lovejoy will break your heart a little bit. When a packet of cornflower seeds fall into Lovejoy’s hands it fuels an obsession. Lovejoy wants a garden, and from that moment pours all her energy into making one among the bomb damaged ruins and squalor. I cannot lie – there may have been tears in my eyes once or twice.

Madam Solario by Gladys Huntington

First read in April 2017. Another beautiful Persephone book, and one that is something like 500 pages long. Gladys Huntington’s writing has been compared to that of Henry James – and I could see why, the novel also reminded me of Edith Wharton.

Madame Solario is strangely compelling, the reader can’t help but be drawn into the intense relationships which slowly develop between a large group of mainly Europeans on the shores of Lake Como. It is a world painted exquisitely by the author – who herself would have experienced something very similar as a young girl, holidaying with her family on Lake Como.

Set in Cadenabbia on Lake Como in September 1906, Madame Solario transports us instantly to another world – a world of European and American high society, a lakeside retreat, shuttered villas, picnics, polite conversation and whispered scandal. One of their number is Bernard, a young Englishman recently graduated from Oxford. Madame Solario, still young and beautiful arrives amid disturbing rumours of her past. Whispers of a terrible scandal within her family, leading to her being married off to her much older South American husband – only where is he now? And what happened to her brother who disappeared around the same time? A stunning sense of place, and excellent writing.

Apologies for the hugely long post – I fully expect most people to skip through it rather than read it all – but hopefully you might find something to read either this week or more likely at a later date.

Happy reading.