Random Jottings

Mrs Ames - E F Benson

"Mrs Ames is queen of Riseborough society. Sceptre firmly grasped in her podgy little hand, she reigns supreme in a world of strawberry teas, high street gossip and riotous insurrections by misguided pretenders like Mrs Altham, Miss Brooks and dear cousin Millie.  But, Mrs Ames is ten years older than her husband and beginning to feel all her fifty-seven years"

Yes it is E F Benson, one of the latest reprinted by the Bloomsbury Group and yes we are in familiar territory as the reader starts enjoying the Tilling type infighting and jockeying for social position, amusing and witty as always, but gradually realises that there is dissatisfaction and vague unhappiness underneath it all.  Mrs Ames husband, Lyndhurst, forms a romantic attachment to his wife's cousin Millie, who is married to the local doctor, Dr Carter.  They flirt in a gentle, understated way.  Millie is a woman who makes men feel desirable and such fine fellows:

"She gave him one of those shy little deprecating glances that made him involuntarily feel that he was the most agreeable companion.   'Ah you are being wicked now.....you understand better than anybody".

He becomes drawn into a semi-serious flirtation which takes place over the summer months.  It gradually becomes noticeable to Mrs Ames and it is then that she has to sit down and ponder on her feelings for Lyndhurst, and realises that she is fond of him, she loves him and has no intention of letting anything further happen.  She takes herself off for a series of restorative treatments in order to rekindle her husband's interest but despite her best endeavours, this is a failure.  She banks on her husband's love of his easy life, his position in the small town where they live, the years they have been married and is sure this will stop him doing anything reckless.

However, matters progress further than either Mrs Ames or Dr Carter thought they would and both of the middle aged lovers decide to leave together.  Cousin Millie had entered into this flirtation in a light hearted manner as a mere diversion from her rather boring life but something had crept into her consciousness, had disturbed her:

"Neither wifehood nor motherhood had awakened her womanhood.  In that she was a woman she was that most dangerous of all created or manufactured things, an unexploded shell, liable to blow to bits both itself and any who handled her.......the heart of it had never been penetrated by the love that could transform its violence into strength..."

For most of this novel I found Cousin Millie a rather irritating character, one of these helpless feminine creatures who drift rather selfishly through life using beauty and charm to get their way.  Nothing mean or spiteful about her, just an acceptance that she was beautiful and desirable and that she did not have to make much of an effort to be loved.  But danger lurks and she feels real emotion for the first time and, though Colonel Ames was drawn to her, it is made clear that he is afraid of being too heavily involved and when it comes to taking the final step, has huge doubts:

"....for a moment all these trivialities stood away from him and for an interval he saw where he stood and what he was doing - the vileness the sordidness, the vulgarity of it..."

Mrs Ames is not just another Mapp and Lucia type gossipy novel.   It has very many funny witty moments, particularly a Shakespearian fancy dress party where all the ladies decide to keep their costumes a secret and then all turn up as Cleopatra, the usual jockeying for social position and the petty intrigues and gossiping, but ultimately this is rather a melancholy, sad little story.

"Millie you are not going to see Lyndhurst....the tension of those wide childish eyes slowly relaxed and her head sank forward and there came the terrible and blessed tears in wild cataract and streaming storm.  And Mrs Ames looking at her felt all her righteousness relax; she had only pity for this poor destitute soul ...........slowly the tears ceased and the sobs were still and Millie raised her dim, swollen eyes. 

'I had better go home, I wonder if you would let me wash my face cousin Amy.  I must be a perfect fright'.  'Yes dear Millie' said she 'but there is no hurry we shall have some tea'

'I don't see how I can ever be happy again' she said.

'No Millie; said the other 'none of us three are that exactly.  We shall all have to be patient, very patient and ordinary'

Life will go on as usual and gradually Colonel Ames and Cousin Millie will get used to seeing each other again and this will fade away, though I cannot help but feel that while Colonel Ames will be happy to settle back into his quiet routine, Millie will not.  She has been awakened to deeper feelings and I feel that her happiness in her previous life will never be enough for her.   As I finished this book I thought of Edna Pontellier in The Awakening by Kate Chopin, another woman whose deeper feelings were aroused by a summer love affair.  There was no way back for her, so what will happen to Millie? 

Val Hennessy reviews this today in the Mail under the heading "Desperate Housewives go to War".  She says it is 'funny, astutely obserbed and scattered with exquisite descriptions - sublime satire'.  Well it is all she says and yet I feel she has totally missed the sadness and broken dreams portrayed in this book. Yes it is funny but it is so much more.

Mrs Harris goes to Paris

The author of this book, Paul Gallico, joins a long list of those names whose books I used to stamp in and out when working in Highgate Library as a lippy teenager, all authors I sneeringly ignored as rather middle brow and 'nice'.  Also included in this list were the Mapp and Lucia books of EF Benson, PG Wodehouse, Dorothy Whipple, E M Delafield and a myriad others.  Well, I have learned my lesson, pity it has taken me so long and now read and love all these authors so when Mrs Harris goes to Paris, one of the latest tranche from the Bloomsbury Group, arrived I was looking forward to reading it.  I had picked up a copy of the original book at a book fair last year though its title is different but had still not read it for some reason. I have a feeling it spent most of last year lurking at the bottom of my To be Read pile.

And what a treat I have been missing all these years.  This latest edition also contains Mrs Harris goes to New York and it is inevitable that the thought of the Provincial Lady should pop into my mind when contemplating Gallico's Mrs Harris.   What a delight and a joy it was to sit down and read this straight through, forget taking my time so the joy would last longer, oh no had to be gulped down all in one go.

Mrs Harris is a char lady one, of those indomitable women who go out and 'do' for an assortment of clients. She is unfailingly plucky and cheerful, used to hard work and getting on with things, a down to earth woman who doesn't complain and doesn't grumble, an ordinary person contented with her lot until one day when she is at one of her clients, Lady Dant, she comes across a Dior dress. She has never seen anything so beautiful and so magical "drab and colourless as her existence would seem to have been, Mrs Harris had always felt a craving for beauty and colour .......she stood before the stunning creation hanging in the wardrobe and found herself face to face with a new kind of beauty - an artificial one created by the  hand of man the artist, but aimed directly and cunningly at the heart of woman.  In that very instant she fell victim to the artist; at that very moment there was born within her the craving to possess such a garment"

Mrs Harris has a small win on the pools and taking this as a sign that she is meant to have a dress by Dior she scrimps and slaves away until one day she finally has enough money to go to Paris.  Off she goes little knowing that her life and the lives of those she comes into contact with will never be the same again.  She meets Madame Colbert, the manageress at the House of Dior deeply unhappy because her husband is being passed over for promotion once again at the Foreign Office, the Marquis de Chassagne who she meets at the fashion show and who is reminded of his home sick days of his youth at university when his char woman was kind to him and made him feel at home, Natasha the glamorous model who hates her glamorous life and wishes to live in bourgeois respectability with a husband and children and Andrea Fauval an accountant, deeply in love with her but who knows he will never tell her so.

Impossible to convey in a post the sheer delight in Mrs Harris and how she transforms the lives of these people who become her friends. Impossible to describe what a treasure she is, how true and good she is, how determined to realise her dream.   You will have to read the book and I do please urge you to do so and enjoy as much as I have done.

"For it had not been a dress she had bought so much as an adventure and an experience that would last her to the end of her days.  She would never again feel lonely or unwanted.  She had ventured into a foreign country and a foreign people whom she had been taught to suspect and despise.  She had found them to be warm and human...they had made her feel that they loved her for herself.  Mrs Harris hugged the dress to her thin bosom.............tears flowed again from the small shrewd blue eyes.....she stood there embracing her dress and with it she was hugging them all, Madame Colbert, Natasha, Andre Fauvel, down to the last anonymous worker, seamstress and cutter as well as the city that had bestowed upon her such a priceless memory, treasure of understanding, friendship and humanity"

See what I mean?

A gem, no other word for it.  I simply adored this book and am not ashamed to say I had a tear or two in my eye at the end as well as Mrs Harris.  So glad that the Bloomsbury Group are giving us all a chance to rediscover these neglected titles and introduce them to new readers or, in my case, an old reader who passed them by when young......

I am most grateful.

More Gems from Bloomsbury

Last year the Bloomsbury Group imprint came up with some simply marvellous books which were chosen by readers for republication.  One of the titles was Henrietta's War which I fell in love with and reviewed here.  Everyone who read this book by Joyce Dennys was enchanted with it and we all expressed the wish that the second one, Henrietta sees it Through might follow.  I was too impatient to wait and see so tracked down an out of print edition and devoured it and loved it as much as the first one.  I am now in the delightful position of having two copies of this as Bloomsbury very kindly sent me their new edition lat week.   My review of the second Joyce Dennys book is here and I am sending you to my posts on both of these books as I do so want everyone to read and enjoy.

Also just reprinted is Mrs Ames by E F Benson.  This is another author who I discovered only last year when the glory of Mapp and Lucia came my way and I have not looked back since, reading as many books as I can get hold of by this author.  There are plenty of them to choose from and though they are variable in quality (hardly surprising as he wrote over 100), Mrs Ames is a goodie and my earlier review of this title is here.   So I now have two different editions of this title as well and am luxuriating in my ownership.

The third Bloomsbury imprint which I received was Mrs Harris goes to Paris by Paul Gallico which also includes Mrs Harris goes to New York.  I sat down and read this  through in two hours  and it was two hours of sheer glorious delight.  I know I am going to burble on about this book so will leave that for another day.

Thrilled to bits that Bloomsbury are giving us all a chance to rediscover these forgotten gems and long may they continue to do so.

Miss Hargreaves

I am a huge fan of Simon's blog, Stuck in a Book, and it is one of the blogs I read on a daily basis as I know that Simon loves the same kind of books that I do, and it is lovely to have a kindred spirit when it comes to reading matters.  I am old enough to be his mother (actually grandmother as well which is a tad dispiriting), but we are of like minds when it comes to literature and whenever Simon loves a book, then I know I will too.

On his blog he has a list  "50 Books You Must Read But May Not Have Heard About" and heading this list is Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker.  If you click on this link you can read all about his thoughts on this book, but to save you leaping across for the moment, HERE is what he has to say.  You will see my name crop up as a convert to this title and I read it at Simon's urgings, well must be about six or seven years ago now.  I was talked into buying the then only in print edition, published by Tartarus Press, and even though this was in my money earning days, I jibbed slightly at its price £30, but bought it anyway and have never regretted it.

If you read what Simon Says then you will know the story of how Miss Hargreaves, created by Norman and his friend Henry, when they are looking at an exceedingly ghastly church in Ireland in the pouring rain and decide to cheer themselves up a bit and have a laugh at the expense of the ancient of days showing them around, is invented on the spur of the moment.

".... and what is your friend's name?'

'Miss Hargreaves'

It seemed to me there was a sort of stirring of air in the church, like - like what?  Rather like someone opening a very old umbrella.  I looked round sharply, but couldn't see anything unusual. A ray of feeble sun had broken through the dark clouds and was shining down on the dust in the galleries.

I realised I was trembling"

When he and Henry then send an letter to Miss Hargreaves at an imaginary address and invite her to visit any time she is free, that is an end of what they both regard as a good joke.  But then Miss Hargreaves writes accepting their invitation and to their utter horror, turns up complete with cockatoo and hip bath, little extras they had added to their description in order to add a little verisimilitude.

Then the fun starts.  Norman is horrified, scared and angry in turn as Miss Hargreaves proceeds to take over his life, his friends and his family.  His father,  a man of deep understanding of his son's flights of imagination as he is very similar himself, is the only person who believes in how Miss Hargreaves came to be, but he too begins to fall under her spell, and it is at this stage of the book that Miss Hargreaves who, up to now has been endearingly eccentric, begins to assume a slightly menacing aspect.  Norman knows he has to rid himself of her by destroying his creation and to prevent her total power over him, but he has come to love her and he is in turmoil at what he knows he has to do.  In the end, he and Henry travel back to the church in Lusk, whence she was created, in order to bring the situation to an end.

"Immediately, where there had been that old lady there was now only a greenish darkness, broken faintly by a dusty light from some great windows.  Her voice died away, far away, echoing deep and long into space, vibrant at first then then thinner.....I opened my eyes.  The wind that had been roaring round the roof, suddenly stopped.  Henry and I lowered our heads as if by mutual understanding. We both knew that she had gone from us"

Frank Baker is a writer I know nothing about, except what I have read in the introduction to Miss Hargreaves. I gather he published fifteen novels and three works of non-fiction and wrote for the Guardian and the Radio times.  Other than that, nothing.   This was his most successful novel and was adapted for the stage in 1952 with Dame Margaret Rutherford in the leading role.  Talk about perfect casting!  Just wish there was a film somewhere of that particular performance. 

Miss Hargreaves is a fascinating story.  It is hilarious and witty, sharply written and with great style, but Frank Baker is also wonderful at creating atmosphere and suddenly a paragraph of sheer beauty will catch your eye and make you realise that he is more than just a writer of fun and froth (not that I would describe Miss H in this way, rest assured).  Just look at this:

"The times when I really loved the Cathedral were weekdays when you could look right down the great nave, seeing perhaps only one tripper creeping from pillar to pillar with a guidebook, a vigilant verger stalking him and ready to net him if he so much as sneezed.

In winter you'd see nothing at all except the light from one gas-globe plunged smokily into the remote and vast darkness of the nave roof.  Then you really felt that Evensong and the Cathedral meant something.  Heralded by old Dyack and his pitch-pipe, Tallis in the Dorian Mode would float down the aisles; a motet by William Byrd weaves its intricate pattern upon the dark silence. At such times I believe we all felt a relationship to the great roof that soared away above us and to the wonderful old monks and people who'd built it all, and wrote that glorious music, centuries ago"

See what I mean?

Thank you Simon for telling me all about Miss Hargreaves  - I would never have discovered her without you.  And thank you Simon for suggesting this reprint to the Bloomsbury Group.  And thank you the Bloomsbury Group for so doing.

All of you now have the chance to read this gloriously inventive, eccentric and wonderful book for the princely sum of £7.99.  Nip across to the website HERE and order.

Go on, you know it makes sense........

Love's Shadow - Ada Leverson

I had never heard of Ada Leverson until I stumbled across an old Virago of The Little Ottleys at a book sale, bought it, read it, loved it and reviewed here.  On re-reading I see this review has only concentrated on the Ottley marriage and I rather ignored the other story line - I have corrected this below.  Love's Shadow is the first story of the three.

My by line is on the back of Love's Shadow and above me is a comment by Barry Humphries 'Saki meets Jane Austen in the delectable comedies of Ada Leverson' and while Love's Shadow is certainly comic, there is also sadness and unrequited love.

Edith is married to the unutterably ghastly Bruce Ottley (Mr Pooter without the charm), who is pompous, and vain. She has a young, beautiful friend Hyacinth Verney who is in love with the elusive and dashing Cedric Reeve. He, in his turn, is fascinated and infatuated with an enigmatic widow some ten years older than him, Mrs Raymond, who spurns his attentions and insists that he marries Hyacinth.  In turn, Hyacinth is loved by her guardian Lord Cannon, unhappily married to the redoubtable and self deluding Lady Cannon who had "a very exalted opinion of her own charms, virtues, brilliant gifts and, above all, of her sound sense.  Fortunately for her, she had married a man of extraordinary amiability who had taken very possible precaution to prevent her discovering that in this opinion she was practically alone in the world".

There is also a hint that Bruce, who is furious at Hyacinth's marraige, may also be in love with her....

Still with me?

Cedric has an Uncle Lord Selsey, who in his turn, becomes fascinated by Mrs Raymond and as she has been a widower for some time and he is a suitable match, decides to marry him.  On hearing this news, Cedric then marries Hyacinth and though he does love her, he still has a secret yen for Mrs Raymond, now his aunt.  It is this unrequited love that casts 'love's shadow' over their marriage and nearly brings him to disaster.

This sounds very convoluted, but the writing of this comedy of manners, because in the end it is a comedy, is so stylish and witty with such a  deft touch that the reference to Jane Austen is not unwarranted.   The main thrust of the story is this love triangle, (or should that be quadruple?) but balancing this out is the Edith/Bruce marriage and I think I can safely say that Bruce Ottley  is one of the most irritating characters I have ever come across.  In my earlier post, I mentioned that Ada Leverson's marriage was not a happy one and I made the assumption that she had imbued Bruce with some of her husband's characteristics.  Edith and her mother in law are joined in an unspoken alliance in managing Bruce and the knack is for Edith to ask him not to do something she really wants him to do, secure in the knowledge that he will then ignore her, do it and she will have achieved the desired result.  

"I feel the want of air" said Bruce. " If you don't mind dear, I think I shall go for a stroll"

"Oh, don't"    He went to  the hall and put on his coat "Just a stroll, or I may look in the club. You don't understand Edith, a man feel rather cramped in these surrounding"

And off he goes to his club where no doubt he will empty the room and Edith makes her telephone call to Hyacinth for a gossip which is what she wanted to do all along.  (This is a strategy I employed many times in my marriage which may go some way to explain why I now live alone...)

The humour and awfulness of Bruce which can only make the reader laugh despite feeling that he really is worth strangling, counter balances the Mrs Raymond/Cedric/Hyacinth tangle which is all sorted out in the end by Mrs Raymond, now Lady Selsey, arranging to go away on a trip with her husband to the Greek Islands for a year or two, and leave Hyacinth and Cedric to sort themselves out.  Left alone, Cedric will realise that he loves Hyacinth and though I feel that Lady Selsey is doing the right thing, I am left with the strong impression that she rather enjoyed being a femme fatale and only decided to let Cedric go when the marriage was in danger of collapse which would not have suited her at all.  Not a pleasant character and I can hardly help but wonder what will happen when she returns.  We will never know of course.  

Ada Leverson has a satirical eye for the absurd as you can see by the reconciliation between Hyacinth and Cecil.

"Cedric, are you really sorry that she's going?" 

"Not at all if I'm going to have a little peace now"

"Oh Cecil have I been unfair to you?  I'm very very sorry. I see I was wrong. How could I be so horrid?"

"....you did make me feel pretty miserable"

"Oh poor boy. Then you don't care a bit for that woman then?" 

"Not a straw!"

"Oh Cecil will you ever forgive me?"

"Well, I'll try" said Cecil.

After all the sturm and drang, threats of divorce and angry words, it is all sorted out in this rather silly little exchange and the reader is left with a wry smile at the comic-serious situation.  Wonderful stuff.

Do read.  I know you will love it.