My second read for the 1954 club was Charlotte Fairlie by D E Stevenson, another great read from Dean Street Press. D E Stevenson is such a lovely writer, this provided a delightful escape from the twenty-first century.
The novel is named for the central character, Charlotte Fairlie is a young, girls’ school headmistress – who sometimes tries to look a little bit older than she is so she is taken seriously. Charlotte was once a pupil at St Elizabeth’s herself, and dreamed of being headmistress, and now she is. Two years into her dreamed of position, she has discovered that to be a headmistress is a very lonely profession – unable to make friends among her staff – and with the responsibility of the school resting on her shoulders. Another teacher at the school; Miss Pinkerton had been in the mix for headmistress, and is very resentful of Charlotte – and her resentment becomes really poisonous. With her secretary Miss Post ever desperate to know the contents of private letters, or the other side of a private phone call, Charlotte is not exactly surrounded by friends.
When the new school year starts, Tessa MacRynne is brought to the school by her American mother. Tessa lives on an island in Scotland – a place she loves as much as she does her father – the lord of the isle. It soon becomes apparent that Tessa’s mother won’t be coming back to visit – as she has left her husband, and returned to America. Tessa is terribly hurt by her mother’s departure, unable to understand why she would leave her father, and is desperate to go home to be with him.
“It’s a very bad thing to harbour resentment, Tessa. Do you understand what I mean? It won’t do your mother any harm if you think unkindly about her, but it will do harm to yourself—to your own character.”
When Tessa tries to run away, she draws Charlotte into a little deceit. Charlotte comes across Tessa late at night, and realising how distressed she is, she sneaks her back into school – and the sick bay. Charlotte can’t show favouritism to any pupil, but she is drawn to Tessa, and Tessa responds to her kind sympathy. Miss Pinkerton knows there is something odd about Tessa’s sudden apparent illness – and doesn’t really let the matter drop, keen to prove that Charlotte is showing inappropriate favouritism for a pupil. Miss Pinkerton’s resentment becomes more and more apparent – and the horrible woman is driven to play a very nasty trick on Charlotte around the time of the Queen’s coronation.
Tessa becomes friends with Dione Eastwood (known as Donny) – whose family home is nearby, though Donny only goes home on Sundays. Donny’s two brothers go to a local boys school – whose headmaster is a friend of Charlotte’s. When Tessa goes home with Donny one Sunday, she sees why it is that poor Donny often lacks confidence in herself. All three of the Eastwood children are horribly, bullied by their father Professor Eastwood – no one can do or say anything right in his presence. Donny’s brother Barney is particularly badly affected by his father’s bullying – and although, bright, witty, and chatty when he’s not around, becomes a stammering, nervous wreck as soon as he enters the room. Such is Tessa’s trust of Charlotte that she tells her all about the Professor and his unhappy children.
Over the rest of the school year, Tessa and Charlotte become really good friends – though there is little chance for Charlotte to speak to her young friend on many occasions. There are things about Tessa’s life that reminds Charlotte of her own childhood, she can’t help feeling an extra degree of interest in the girl who has made her affection for her headteacher very obvious. Charlotte is charmed by the girl’s stories of Targ, the island where she lives with her father.
As the summer holidays draw near, Tessa decides to persuade her father to write and invite Miss Fairlie to Targ for a few weeks. Charlotte is very unsure if she should accept the invite – but Tessa’s tales of the island have made her long to see it. Charlotte then manages to persuade Professor Eastwood to allow his three children to also make a summer visit to Targ.
When Charlotte arrives on Targ, the Eastwood children have already been there a week or two – and the change in them is remarkable. Barney has found a hero in Tessa’s father Rory MacRynne and has taken to island life extraordinarily well.
“It was bright and breezy. The sea was very blue with crisp white caps upon the waves; the sky was a paler blue and cloudless. The land was green, the beach was of pure white sand with piles of bright yellow seaweed. Far in the distance there were purple hills, their outlines softened by haze. All the colours were clean—like the colours in a brand new paintbox—and the sunshine was so strong that the very air seemed to glitter.”
Charlotte is soon equally beguiled by the beauty of the island – and life with Tessa, her father and her father’s two elderly aunts who live in their own apartment in the castle. She meets other residents of the island – listens to the old legends about the MacRynne family – it is all a million miles from the realities of being a girls’ school headmistress. It isn’t long before she knows she will be very sad to leave – but the school year begins soon, and all this is complicated by her feelings for Rory MacRynne. A terrible incident – brings Professor Eastwood’s treatment of his children into sharp focus – and Charlotte works with Rory to help Barney who is clearly very damaged.
Targ has changed things for Charlotte and Barney forever – but Charlotte has no idea about the future – she returns to St Elizabeth’s reluctantly to take up the reigns again. I won’t say anything about how things end – but you can probably guess. This was an absolutely delightful read – the kind of book you look forward to returning to later.