Book Review by Chris Hopkins Adèle and Co. is told in the first person by Boy, married to Adèle, cousin of Berry, while Jonathan Mansel is married to Daphne – they are the Count and Countess of Padua. The novel starts with the whole group on holiday in Paris apparently waking fully-clothed from an appalling … Continue reading
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Portrait of a Village (1937) by Francis Brett Young, with Woodcuts by Joan Hassall
Book Review by Chris Hopkins. Frances Brett Young in his ‘Author’s Note’ starts by referring to a novel he published three years earlier: Some years ago, when I published a book called This Little World, I was assured, by a multitude of correspondents, that they knew not only the village of which I had written … Continue reading
WAAF into Wife (1943) by Barbara Stanton
Book Review by Chris Hopkins. I was very pleased to discover this Mills & Boon novel about five years ago when I first started to explore fiction about British Servicewomen in the Second World War. I have just finished it for the second time and have to confess that I enjoyed it at both readings. … Continue reading
The Gold Bat (1904), The Head of Kay’s (1905) and The White Feather (1907) by P.G. Wodehouse
Book review by Chris Hopkins. Each of these early Wodehouse school-story novellas was first published by A&C Black, and all are now available separately in various editions. However, Penguin did readers a great service when it re-published the three together in 1986 as The Gold Bat and Other School Stories. I first read these stories … Continue reading
The Headmistress (1944) by Angela Thirkell
Book Review by Hilary Temple Anyone who has read Thirkell’s early Barsetshire novels will probably remember with what horrified enthusiasm she throws herself into the portrayal of schoolboys. In Summer Half we have Tony Morland and his Southbridge School friends whose conversation is a distillation of Thirkell’s own three sons’ egotism, manipulativeness and essential lovability. … Continue reading
I’m a Stranger Here Myself (1943) by Anthony Thorne
Book Review by Chris Hopkins. Anthony Thorne was a novelist before the war with two successful novels to his name: Delay in the Sun, 1935, and Fruit in Season, 1938 (both re-published by Penguin). After joining the wartime navy, he was selected as a ‘C.W.’ – a ‘Commissioned Warrant’ – a status given to an … Continue reading
William Does His Bit (1941) and Weatherley Parade (1943) by Richmal Crompton.
Book Review by Chris Hopkins. I know we were meant to be reading a Richmal Crompton book for adult readers, but I couldn’t resist the treat of reading a Just William at the same time, so am going to justify this (to myself anyway) by saying that I wanted to compare a Just William and … Continue reading
‘The Murder of Madame Mollard’ (1930) by Winifred Holtby
Book Review by Chris Hopkins. This short feminist dystopia by Winifred Holtby is, as far as I can see, completely forgotten about, but well-worth recovering. It dates from 1930 and was then published in 1937 (after Holtby’s early death in 1935) in a collection called Pavements at Anderby (Collins, London, 1937). This volume, edited by her … Continue reading
August Folly (1936) by Angela Thirkell
Book review by Hilary Temple. As the Penguin blurb to August Folly said (1949): ‘The village of Worsted is one of those English rural communities where life is as full of interest as it is devoid of sensation.’ Sensation in this instance must mean sensationalism, as feelings run high and in some cases irrationally. The … Continue reading
Summer Half (1937) by Angela Thirkell
Book Review by Hilary Temple ‘It seems to me highly improbable that any such school, masters, or boys could ever have existed.’ In writing this as a preliminary to Summer Half Thirkell had her tongue firmly in her cheek (a place it was quite used to occupying). Mother of three very bright sons, she had … Continue reading
