Doreen by Barbara Noble

Endpapers from the Persephone Edition of Doreen

  

I finished this book a few days ago and I thought that it was quite wonderful.

There are so many things I want to say about this book and its subject matter that I’m going to depart from my usual style and ask and answer a series of questions.

That way I hopefully get everything in and keep things coherent.    

 

 

This Book is for the War Through The Generations Challenge?

Yes, it is. The challenge blog is here and is well worth a read.

It wasn’t the most obvious challenge for me to do, but I was drawn to the idea. My fiancé reads a lot of military history and I often feel that maybe I am not as well informed as I might be.

I had a look through  my shelves and  I found six books that would fit the challenge. Not books about warfare but books about people who lived through world war two and whose lives were changed by it. A woman who was trapped in Germany during the war while her children were in England, a girl growing up in Nazi Germany, Londoners living through the Blitz and, in this case, an evacuee.

So why a book about an evacuee?

One of my favourite childhood books was about an evacuee – Carrie’s War by Nina Bawden.

There’s a more personal link too.

My grandmother took in refugees. She had a big house with losts of space in a quiet seaside town. Both of her sons were away fighting and my grandfather had just died, leaving just her and my mother at home.

My mother recalls that one family were unable to adjust to life in Cornwall and decided to take their chance in the Blitz, but a number stayed. She continued to exchange Christmas cards with one until he died a few years ago.

Anything else about evacuees?

Yes, lots! Jessica Mann wrote a wonderful introduction to the Persephone edition of Doreen.

The British government set up an Evacuation Sub-Committee in 1931, long before the war. They believed that if war broke out again it was inevitable that London would be heavily bombed. And so a plan was put into place to move the population elsewhere in the event of war, hoping to relieve the authorities of responsibility for the most vulnerable, free up hospitals and the emergency services and minimize panic. And when war was declared that plan was used.

Never before and never again since have large numbers of children been taken en masse from their homes in vulnerable areas to live with strangers in safer areas.

Nobody considered the psychological effects of separation, living in different homes, changes in upbringing …..

Was evacuation a lesser evil than the dangers of total war?

And what about Doreen?

Doreen Rawlings is the daughter of an office cleaner. Her mother initially refused to let Doreen be evaucated but when the Blitz began she began to realise that she should have let Doreen go and borne the parting to give her the best chance of avoiding danger.

Mrs Rawling’s employer Helen Osborne provides a solution. Her childless brother and sister-in-law lived in a quiet country village and would be happy to take Doreen in.

The Osbornes are a kind, loving middle-class couple, who grow to love Doreen and want to do the best for her. Doreen settles happily into her new life

But Helen Osborne sees the danger of taking Doreen “out of her class” by teaching her grammar and ironing out her accent, giving her things that her mother could never provide. And eventually Doreen’s two mothers clash, as they have very different ideas as what is best for her.

Barbara Noble writes beautifully and with great insight about the mind of a child torn between her mother, whom she leaves behind in London, and the couple who take her in.

Doreen is likeable and utterly believable. Indeeed all of the characters are wonderfully drawn and you can empathise with every one, though you know that not all of them can have a happy ending.

There is much detail about life in Britain during the war, both in the Blitz in London and in the quiet countryside. The contrast is striking.

And light is shed on the sharp class distinctions of the time, different ways of raising children and the perils of separation.

A wonderful story and much food for thought – this definitely a book that will stay with me.

Evacuation kept children safe, but at what cost?

The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford

“This is the saddest story I have ever heard.

We had known the Ashburnhams for nine years in the town of Nauheim with an extreme intimacy – or, rather, with an acquaintanceship as loose and as easy and yet as close as a good glove’s with your hand.

My wife and I knew Mr and Mrs Ashburnham as well as it was possible to know anybody, and yet, in another sense, we knew nothing at all about them.”

These are the words of John Dowell, a man struggling to make sense of what has happened in those years at the start of the 20th century.

At first he descibes an idyllic friendship, but as the story progresses it becomes clear that the truth is much darker.

Both marriages were flawed and none of the quartet understood their spouse.

Edward Ashburnham, the good soldier of the title, was a man with many strengths but a fatal flaw – he was a compulsive philanderer who had many affairs.

As did Dowell’s wife, Florence. It was almost inevitable that she and Edward would begin an affair. It went on for years and when relationship Florence took her own life.

And that was not the only harm done. Far from it. Many lives were damaged, and eventually one of Ashburnham’s affairs would lead him to suicide as well

As Dowell tells the story he begins to realise the truth and he must go over events again and again, filling in new details and trying to make sense of what has happened.

There is very little dialogue, just John Dowell’s narrative voice as he moves back and forth in time, untangling events.

That is what makes this book great – the characterization, the elegant prose and, most of all, the wonderfully clever structure.

And yes, it is terribly sad -the complete failure of so many people, who seem to have so much, to understand each other and find fulfillment in their lives.

Not a book to enjoy but definitely a book to admire.

I will read it again one day because I am quite sure that there are details and subtleties that may have passed me by on a first reading.

There is much that could be said about “The Good Soldier”, but it needs someone more articulate than me. Julian Barnes in The Guardian, for example …..

Library Loot

Library Loot is a weekly event hosted by Eva and Alessandra to share the library books we find each week.

I have 3 new books on my library pile. All non-fiction this week:

The Fish Course by Lindsey Bareham

A memoir with recipes. Lindsey Bareham is one of my favourite food writers and this is set in my part of the world. Couldn’t be better!

 

Alice Starmore’s Book of Fair Isle Knitting

I have a huge ravelry queue and I have an Alice Starmore Jumper in progress already but I couldn’t resist taking this home and planning more projects. This book is being reprinted soon and I definitely want a copy of my own!

The Good Women of China by Xinran

This will fill the X slot in my A to Z Challenge very nicely!

Teaser Tuesdays / It’s Tuesday Where Are You?

It is 1940 and I am in London. The war started quietly but now the Germans are dropping bombs and we have to go down to the shelter every night. I don’t know what to do about my daughter. Should I let her be evacuated to the country? There are only the two of us and I have to earn a living and hold on to our home, so I couldn’t go with her. I can’t bear to part with her, but what if I keep her with me and something happens? The shelter rocked last night and we were so scared. I think I have to let her be evauated. I have to keep her safe, don’t I?

It’s Tuesday, where are you? is hosted by raidergirl3.

Just quote a couple of spoiler-free sentences the book you’re reading to tempt other readers.

Here is mine:-

“At this time of the morning, with an hour or more to go before the shops opened and the office staffs assembled, there were few people about on the streets and most of them were solitary women in their oldest clothes. Unconscious guardians of London’s morale, the cleaners went as usual to their work.”

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB

This all comes courtesy of Doreen by Barbara Noble.

A Photo Meme

Laura at Musings has tagged me for a photo meme.

“Find your 5th photo file folder, then the 5th photo in that file folder. Then pass the meme to 5 people.”

Here is my photo:

It dates back to the summer of 2006. I used to read in an armchair with the back to a big bay window. Briar, my border terrier, was still a growing puppy and she used to climb onto my shoulder to get a better view of what was going on outside.

These days Briar is too big to sit comfortably on my shoulder, but she has her own chair in the window to watch the world go by.

And now I am going to tag:

Jackie at Farm Lane Books
Kirsty at Other Stories
Natalie at Gubbinal
Caite at a lovely shore breeze….
Stacy at Stacy’s Bookblog

The Borrowers by Mary Norton

The Borrowers dates back to 1952, but the concept is so clever that you wonder why nobody thought of it before then.

The Clock family, Pod, Homily and their daughter Arrietty, are a family of tiny people who live beneath the floorboards of a country house. Everything that they have is “borrowed” from “human beans”, who are completely unaware where so many little things – things like hairslides, safety pins, paperclips, blotting paper and stamps – are going.

The family feel safe and secure in its home. The entrance is hidden behind a series of gates made from safety pins and hairslides. They are comfortable too, with blotting paper for carpet and postage stamps adorning the walls.

But for young Arrietty being safe is also being trapped, and she longs to go out and discover the world that she an only watch through a grating.

Pod and Homily have reservations. Understandably, as they remember cousin Eggletina who ventured out and was never seen again. Eventually though they do allow Arrietty to accompany her father on borrowing trips.

It is on one of those trips Arrietty does something she is told she must never do. She is “seen” and she makes friends with a human boy.

After that life for the Clocks will never be quite the same.

“The Borrowers” is a perfectly constructed and paced story. It is well framed by the boy’s sister, years later, telling her brother’s story to a child and she tells that story simply and in clear prose that really draws you in.

The world beneath the floorboards is brought to life quite wonderfully. The detail is lovely – and so clever.

And the characters are marvellous creations too. You will empathise with all of them and you certainly will have met fathers like Pod, mothers like Homily and daughters like Arrietty.

This is a book that has stood up to the passage of time and re-reading as an adult. It definitely deserves to be called a classic.

The Guardian’s List of 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read

Back on 17th January the first installment of 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read arrived in our house in the form of a supplement with the daily paper. It was great fun to go through the list picking out the books I’d read, the books I wanted to read, the books I’d never heard of and weighing up the rights and wrongs.

Six more supplements, each with a different theme, arrived over the course of the week. The full set was:

17th January – Love
18th January – Crime
19th January – Comedy
20th January – Family and Self
21st January – State of the Nation
22nd January – Science Fiction & Fanatasy
23rd January – War & Travel

There’s a list in today’s Guardian of 100 books that got away too.

You can read all the lists plus some interesting extras here.

It’s an interesting list. Some of the categories have been stretched a bit to fill them and to fit everything, but for me that just adds to the charm.

And, while I don’t really believe in “novels you must read”, I have wanting a master list list to refer to and I think this one is the best I’ve found.

I’ve been wondering just what to do do with it …

So over the next few weeks I’ll post the lists and mark up what I’ve read and what I plan to read.

And Jennie at Biblio File is hosting a challenge to read 10 books from the list over the coming year. You can find the details here.

I’m signing up!

The Girl from the Chartreuse by Pierre Péju

“The Girl from the Chartreuse” is a story that will break your heart.

Vollard is driving his van back to his bookshop when a little girl runs out into the road in front of him.

Éva, the little girl, had been running home from school, anxious because her mother failed to meet her.

Thérèse, her mother, was running late. She is well intentioned but she isn’t dealing well with the responsibilities of a single mother.

And so a tragic accident happens.

Vollard visits to the hospital where Éva is lying unconscious. It is clear that he identifies with the lonely child, and he reaches back into his own childhood and the memories of books that have filled his life to find stories to tell her.

Can he reach Éva? And can she save him from his solitary life?

This is a striking tale of childhood, loneliness and learning to accept and understand our differences. The beautifully drawn characters and vivid storytelling draw you in and make you hope even when all seems lost.

A short book, but it holds a story that will stay with you.

(Translated by Ina Rilke)

Library Loot

Library Loot is a weekly event hosted by Eva and Alessandra to share the library books we find each week.

I have 4 new books on my library pile:

Lady Into Fox by David Garnett
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
The Girl from the Chartreuse by Pierre Péju
Hound Music by Rosalind Belben

All very promising!

Castle of Wolfenbach by Eliza Parsons

“Dear creature! how much I am obliged to you; and when you have finished Udolpho, we will read The Italian together; and I have made out a list of ten or twelve more of the same kind for you.”

“Have you, indeed! How glad I am! – What are they all?”

“I will read you their names directly; here they are, in my pocket-book. Castle of Wolfenbach, Clermont, Mysterious Warnings, Necromancer of the Black Forest, Midnight Bell, Orphan of the Rhine, and Horrid Mysteries. Those will last us some time.”

“Yes, pretty well; but are they all horrid, are you sure they are all horrid?”

“Yes, quite sure; for a particular friend of mine, a Miss Andrews, a sweet girl, one of the sweetest creatures in the world, has read every one of them.” – Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

So, what is this book that Isabella Thorpe recommended to Catherine Moreland?

The story opens with our heroine, Matilda Weimar, fleeing her lecherous uncle and guardian. She seeks refuge in the Castle of Wolfenbach. Only two servants are in residence and the castle is reputed to be haunted. Matilda sets out to explore the empty castle and finds not ghosts but the missing Countess of Wolfenbach.

The Countess is lying in hiding and she is unwilling to say why.

Matilda’s uncle continues to pursue her. Can she escape from his clutches? Will her life always be blighted by her unknown origins?

And what of the Countess? Will she escape and can she ever really be free? What is her secret?

The story speeds along, packed with tales of woe, heroes and villains, titles and society, swooning and fainting, weeping and wailing, swooning and fainting …

And eventually, of course, the good are rewarded and the bad are punished.

“The Castle of Wolfenbach” isn’t great literature but it is very readable and wonderful entertainment.

I like to think that Catherine would have enjoyed it.