Latchkey Ladies – Marjorie Grant (1921)

I have been having a rather good month reading things for #ReadIndies all of which have turned out to be great. Latchkey Ladies by Marjorie Grant was a Christmas present from family, and one of three Handheld Press books I have tbr. I am glad I chose this one as it turned out to be an enthralling read. It was the first novel by the Canadian writer first published in 1921 it is set around the end of WW1 in 1918.  

The novel opens in the Mimosa club – a kind of women’s hostel, where some women live in rooms above, while others – like several of our characters, live out, going there for meals and to socialise.  

One of the first young women we meet – and the principal character throughout – is Anne Carey, one of the latchkey ladies of the title. Latchkey ladies being young women who live independently, working and renting rooms. Anne is rather conventional – and she doesn’t particularly love this way of life – it all seems rather beneath her – and she hates the war work she is doing in an office and is frequently at odds with her landlady, who she cannot disguise her dislike for. She is engaged to a young man serving in the army, but Anne is bored with him. Anne isn’t always that easy to like, and as we see her at work, overly upset by the soldiers that she rubs shoulders with and feeling superior to pretty much everyone else in the office, she is at her least attractive. In time, however, the reader will probably warm to her as I did. Soon after the novel opens Anne gives up this hated work, and floats around between jobs for a while, relieved to not to have to go back there.  

“Actually Anne was almost at breaking point without knowing it. The difficulties of her ordinary day, too long hours, too little food and fresh air, no free time almost, and the common anxiety of war weighed her down, and the hardest part of the strain was, as she had said, that she hated this work”. 

There are several other young women who Anne is friendly with, they all see each other daily at the Mimosa club, often going out to bohemian parties, where they are introduced to all sorts of writers and artists. Maquita is the woman Anne is closest to, she is less conventional seeming to Anne – loud and energetic, fun loving and kind she embraces the latchkey lifestyle, enjoying the variety and independence it brings. Sophy is pretty, but lacks charm, and her own mother appears to prefer the company of Anne. Geraldine Denby, an admiral’s daughter comes to the Mimosa club with her employer, to whom she is companion. Through her brief story, we see the terrible toll, this lifestyle took on many women.  

Anne and Maquita meet Petunia at a party, and take her under their wing, she is an entirely different kettle of fish. There is some question over Petunia’s background – most recently she was a chorus girl – and these questions are discussed in ways which become rather uncomfortable. These kinds of novels always tell us so much about certain attitudes of the time, and how important the class system still was. Anne doesn’t much enjoy the noise and clamour of this party, happy to sit back and take it all in. 

“The room began to fill with people, and Anne, withdrawing from the inner circle that surrounded Mr Meebes, was content to look on and to talk to such casual guests as drifted by. It amused her to see how naturally Maquita became part of the crowd – her eyes, her hands flashing, her laugh pealing above the other voices. She adored people without discrimination – a party of any sort delighted her, and these chorus girls, and mannequins, and young soldiers were exciting to her. Sophy too seemed to be very happy, and Petunia when she was not claiming Simon’s attention, was charming a young Flying Corps officer with his arm in a sling.” 

 However, everyone seems to love beautiful, naïve Petunia (though whether she is really that naïve is also in some doubt) – she is only eighteen after all. Anne and Maquita secure a room for her at the Mimosa club, all set to fully scandalise an older member of the club who sees herself as being particularly refined and is possibly still living in the Victorian age.  

It isn’t long before Petunia has caught the eye of a slightly stuffy man from very good family, he is utterly infatuated with Petunia, determined to marry her, cart her off to the country pile and turn her into a society wife. Petunia doesn’t seem very sure what she wants.  

Someone else Anne meets at this party is Philip Dampier, a married man and well-known playwright whose work she has admired. The two become friends, and Anne is introduced to his wife and two little boys – she loves children – and becomes fond of the family. However, the two begin an affair, and of course, almost inevitably the consequences for Anne will be far greater than for Philip.  

A good novel about women during this period, giving an authentic flavour of London life and society at the end of WW1. Interestingly, for Rose Macaulay fans, Marjorie Grant knew Rose Macaulay and so it is possible that the relationship of Anne and Philip was inspired by that of Rose and Gerald O’ Donovan.