Tower and Town, August 2020 (view the full edition)A Good ReadThere is nothing as peculiar as the recent past, and Ysenda Maxtone-Graham is a genius at capturing it. Terms and Conditions, about girls' boarding schools, was full of reminiscences about green mince, chapel cloaks, and the Correct Knickers. Now in British Summer Time Begins Y M-G has turned to what happens at the end of term, when weeks of blissful (supposedly) idleness (ideally) loomed. Anecdotes of 'holidays' from the 1930s to the 80s are recounted with the author's sharp eye for the telling, comic or border-line tragic detail. Some holidays were just a day-trip by coach to the seaside, other people spent six weeks in Scotland with feral cousins, or endured a visit to Granny, who ate the family pets. (No, really! Chapter 10.) Agonising, sick-making car journeys had children and luggage packed with military precision by fathers for whom this was the one annual engagement with domestic life. Summer could mean horrible/baffling/life-changing exchange trips with foreign pen-pals, or dingy, mildewy tents or boarding houses, or a day out to somewhere 'interesting', with packed-lunch sandwiches in greaseproof paper. For some there were long trips on a succession of ever smaller aircraft which took boarding-school children 'home' for the holidays, where they were decanted into blinding Equatorial sunshine, wearing school blazers and itchy socks. Whatever your own summers were like, there will be something you recognise in this wittily observant and faintly poignant book. And after that, do read The Fortnight in September by RC Sherriff. First published in 1931, and revived by Persephone Books, it's a lovely novel about a family enjoying their annual holiday, undramatic, loving, and with a slightly wistful air of things inevitably starting to change. V for Victory by Lissa Evans is a sequel to Crooked Heart and Old Baggage, continuing the story of Noel and Vee, now living in Hampstead in the final months of the war. This author goes from strength to strength, her characters and dialogue are spot-on, the narrative threads and coincidences are all plausibly tied together, and it's done with such heart and warmth. My enthusiasm for LE is a standing joke in the bookshop, but I honestly think she's written a trilogy that stands comparison with Jane Gardam's Old Filth series, and I can't come up with higher praise. I'm late to the party, not unusual for me, but I finally read and absolutely loved Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo. I was put off by the Booker Prize-ness of it, and the unconventional prose style. I was wrong, it's fabulous and captivating. Read it even if you don't think it's your kind of thing. In fact, especially if you think it's not your kind of thing. Debby Guest |