Chatterton Square

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they had known each other since their childhood days, and he had wanted to marry her but had to go to war and when he came back she was recently married to Herbert, who didn’t fight in the war. I'm not a huge fan of Zoom but I do love that I'm finally able to see members of this group face-to-face, especially since many of them live in the UK. There is less levity than some of her others (no character leaps off the page like the lovable Miss Mole), and it perhaps requires more commitment from a reader than some. So when I connected with the fact that British Library Publishing were re-releasing a series of books from 1910 through to 1940 with just this premise in mind, I knew I wanted to be involved.

Blackett and his daughter Flora, they are beautifully developed villains, and I also how his wife Bertha began to grow and change. Yes, the after-effects of the war are very much present throughout the novel, especially in Rosamund’s thoughts. Published in 1947, on the surface it is the story of two households, both living on opposite sides of a square in Bristol. As the story progresses, the female members of the Blackett family develop increasingly close friendships with the Frasers much to Mr B's consternation. H. Young's plots is the fact that her lead female characters are often willing to live in intolerable circumstances, or with profound ambiguity in their marital relationships.

The group meets this afternoon to discuss it but I wanted to knock out a post of my own independent thoughts. But I should also say I am an outlier – most of the reviews I read from bloggers (see below for links) were laudatory towards the book. Nearly half way through but I'm abandoning it for now as I'm struggling to engage with the characters. Miss Spanner, in turn, starts to become friendly with Rhoda, who sneaks over illicitly to borrow books.

When the Fraser family, headed by Rosamund, an unconventional widow, arrives next door, Herbert Blackett (a seriously un-likeable character) finds his once unquestioned control over his wife and three daughters challenged.It was first published in 1947 with World War II and its toll on Britain's young men, as well as on those who remained behind, still fresh and painful. The contrast between the Blackett and the Fraser households is stark and rests almost entirely with it’s patriarch. As the novel draws to a close, the political developments in Europe become an increasingly dominant factor. My only disappointment was the ending -- I didn't expect it, and didn't understand how it came to pass.

A picture of England at the outset of the Second World War, as experienced by two families living across from one another in E. We see two women, one trapped in a loveless marriage to a priggish man who escaped fighting in the Great War; and the other living in limbo, not unhappily, as her (brave) husband has absconded to the Continent, and a new man (wounded in the Great War) pursues her. It is a novel of contrasts, an exploration of lives – women’s lives in particular – in the run-up to the Second World War.They had each lived in a mean little world, his of self-satisfaction, hers of pandering to it for her own amusement and hers, she feared, was the meaner. The way Young draws this marriage is truly astonishing – in the minutely observed ways each behaves, and the vividly real dynamic that emerges. An unhappy marriage, never married or separated (I don't think the author could have been too enamoured of the marriage state as there is no evidence of the other option - a happy marriage! His three daughters Flora, Rhoda and Mary are repressed and his long suffering wife Bertha is trapped in a marriage she has regretted since her honeymoon in Florence. Young occupied a separate flat in their house and was addressed as 'Mrs Daniell'; this concealed the unconventional arrangement.

Black hard cover with red title label to spine - a couple of blemishes to back cover, otherwise Good.I'm so happy that I finally finished this and am so looking forward to our discussion because I'm sure everyone will have a LOT of opinions about it! Framed by the advance of the Second World War, the subtle mechanics of marriage and love are laid bare through the observation of three of the marital options open to the mid-century woman: unmarried, separated, miserably married. So many felt that appeasement and compromise were the wisest course -- ludicrous now in hindsight, but very serious at the time. Powerful portrait of a domestic despot who unconsciously believes that everything he thinks or does is the only way to be.