Abacus Books
3 total works
When Louise returns to the house where she was brought up, old violence stirs beneath the calm surface. What, for instance, is the significance of the rare Chinese lily carefully raised by her grandmother in the odd greenhouse, perched high up on the side of the garden? Why is the gate at the bottom of the garden kept barred and locked against the common lapping up against its walls? Only by unravelling these secrets which the Braithwaites, in their fierce family pride, have deliberately hidden, or deliberately forgotten, can she arrive at the truth about them and about herself.
It is the late 1950s; the social milieu is London's colonies of artists and writers. Penelope's husband has died suddenly and needlessly, and she is left to face an uncertain future. She needs understanding, acceptance, the chance to express an identity of her own rather than as one half of a partnership. But these are qualities which her family and friends may not be able to supply...
Elizabeth Berridge's crisp and distinctly English style of writing established her as one of the most significant novelists of the post-war years.
'She has an eye for the beauty of humble and familiar things, and a gift for expressing it in a language sharp yet delicate. She has a quiet, wicked sense of humour.' New Statesman
Elizabeth Berridge's crisp and distinctly English style of writing established her as one of the most significant novelists of the post-war years.
'She has an eye for the beauty of humble and familiar things, and a gift for expressing it in a language sharp yet delicate. She has a quiet, wicked sense of humour.' New Statesman
An overloaded car grinds up a rutted lane, a luggage rack on top, boxes tied here and there, a cat looking out of the window. Harriet Cooper, thirtyish, awkward and vulnerable, is coming to claim her aunt's inheritance, a tumbledown bus. Cousin Magda has already been left the land, the farm and the house, and does not altogether welcome Harriet; her husband Greg, however, is delighted to see her.
But there is another unseen presence in the house, which haunts all three. Scrubbs was the man with whom both Harriet and Magda fell in love, whose internment in a Japanese POW camp and subsequent death is, for Greg, an uncomfortable and menacing memory that one day must be exorcised ...
'Skill subtlety and stylistic assurance ... her moral comedy illuminates life.' Daily Telegraph
But there is another unseen presence in the house, which haunts all three. Scrubbs was the man with whom both Harriet and Magda fell in love, whose internment in a Japanese POW camp and subsequent death is, for Greg, an uncomfortable and menacing memory that one day must be exorcised ...
'Skill subtlety and stylistic assurance ... her moral comedy illuminates life.' Daily Telegraph