update #386: seasons, scenery and cosy comforts
I have read four novels by D.E. Stevenson, not quite in the order in which they were written, and this was such a lovely use of my time!
• Bel Lamington (1961) (audiobook): This is about a young woman who works in London as a secretary for a shipping firm.
It’s a very gentle sort of story. Bel makes some unexpected new friends, starting with a neighbour, who wants to paint Bel in Bel’s rooftop garden, and someone she knew slightly at school, who invites Bel to stay with her in the country.
Although it’s not just gardening and picturesque scenery and new friendships -- Bel also encounters difficulties at work while her boss is overseas on a business trip. That’s very stressful for her, because Bel cares a lot about her job and she doesn’t have any family she can turn to in a crisis. I could predict how everything would all ultimately turn out -- but I was surprised by some of the turns the story took before it got there.
Verdict: Delightful. And, perhaps because the two experiences are so different, I have only just registered that the story is framed by Bel being painted. Oh, I see.Gradually, in spite of the soot and the smoke and the depredations of pigeons, the flat roof had become a tiny garden, a piece of the country wedged in amongst the bricks and mortar of the city. Some plants refused to grow, they pined for their proper milieu as Bel herself had pined, but others consented to bloom quite cheerfully. They had to be coaxed, of course, watered and drained and repotted, their leaves sponged and their roots cosseted with bone-meal, but Bel had no other hobby and when she returned from working all day in a stuffy office it was delightful to climb out of her sitting-room window and enjoy the pleasance which she had created. The little garden was wonderfully private, it was not overlooked by the windows of the surrounding houses; she could take a deck-chair and sit there enjoying the colour and fragrance of her flowers. She could see the sky, blue and hazy above the chimneys; often she sat and watched the sky darken and the stars appear.
But the little garden was a summer joy, there was nothing much to be done with it during the winter, so Bel was glad that winter was over and Spring was here.
I would have embarked on the sequel immediately if Scribd had had the audiobook for Fletcher’s End. So instead I chose the first book about the Dering family -- several of Bel’s new friends are Derings, or else their relatives, and I wanted to read more about them.
• Vittoria Cottage (1949) (audiobook): Caroline Dering, a middle-aged widow, lives at Vittoria Cottage. Nothing too dramatic happens. There are some dinner parties and some incidents involving neighbours. The Derings befriend a newcomer to the neighbourhood, Robert Shepperton. Caroline’s eldest daughter gets engaged and no one is very happy about it; Caroline and her sister (the actress Harriet Fane) visit each other; her son James returns home after three years in the army. And so on.
But this is a fascinating insight into postwar life in England, with rationing and rules about what one must do with eggs if one keeps more than a certain number of hens. And I like that Stevenson considers the concerns of a middle-aged widow worthy of this sort of attention -- and of this sort of romance. She saw beauty in ordinary little things and took pleasure in it (and this was just as well because she had had very little pleasure in her life). She took pleasure in a well-made cake, a smoothly ironed napkin, a pretty blouse, laundered and pressed; she liked to see the garden well dug, the rich soil brown and gravid; she loved her flowers. When you are young you are too busy with yourself -- so Caroline thought -- you haven't time for ordinary little things but, when you leave youth behind, your eyes open and you see magic and mystery all around you: magic in the flight of a bird, the shape of a leaf, the bold arch of a bridge against the sky, footsteps at night and a voice calling in the darkness, the moment in a theatre before the curtain rises, the wind in the trees, or (in winter) an apple-branch clothed with pure white snow and icicles hanging from from a stone and sparkling with rainbow colours.
(I’m not sure how I feel about Stevenson’s portrayal of Caroline’s “daily help”, Comfort Podbury. Caroline obviously values Comfort’s friendship as well as her work -- Caroline has a lot of affection, sympathy and respect for Comfort, and so, it seems, does the author. But Stevenson is also very unflattering about Comfort’s obesity. Does that undermine the sympathy?)
• Music in the Hills (1950): I was so eager to read this I didn’t wait until I could get the audiobook through Scribd and just got the ebook. This feels more like a spinoff than a direct sequel to Vittoria Cottage -- although James Dering’s story properly begins in Vittoria Cottage, I think this could standalone.
James Dering has come to Scotland to stay with his aunt and uncle at Mureth, and learn about farming. I knew how James’ romantic endeavours would unfold -- he and his wife appear in the later novel, Bel Lamington -- but even with that foreknowledge to make things extra predictable, I wanted to keep reading. This has such a strong sense of place! I can so easily, so vividly, imagine the green hillsides, dotted with sheep, and the vast sky, and the fireside comforts of Mureth House.
I like James, and I particularly like his aunt and uncle. Mamie and Jock have been married for years and weathered disappointments (they wanted children), and it’s so obvious how content they are with their life together. Their contentment radiates through their home -- and through the story. Quite often, James noticed, Jock and Mamie communicated their ideas to one another without words. They were so near each other, so perfect for one another, they were two halves of a complete whole. It was a good thing to see, but it made James’s heart ache. How lovely it would be to have somebody like that, thought James, to have somebody who cared frightfully if you had a headache or happened to cut your finger, somebody who shared everything with you, who knew your faults and weaknesses and went on loving you more and more!
James had told her a great deal about Mureth, but descriptions, however glowing, rarely do justice to their subject, and Rhoda found Mureth more beautiful than she had dreamed. Those old stone barns -- what a gorgeous colour they were! And the whitewashed cottages with their shining windows and neat little front gardens full of bright flowers! The view down the valley was wide and free; the winding river, the rounded, rolling hills. The air sparkled so that it was a positive joy to breathe… and over the whole place there was a stillness, a peaceful sort of feeling; it was like the feeling one has when the words of a benediction have been uttered and have died away.
• Winter and Rough Weather (1951), alt. titled Shoulder the Sky: This follows directly on from Music in the Hills. James and his new wife have come to live across the river from Mureth at Boscath. James has new responsibilities on the farm, while Rhoda has to adjust to an entirely new life -- without electricity or a telephone.Boscath Farm-house was small but Rhoda was pleased with it; the rooms had been painted and papered and her colour-scheme of dove grey and turquoise blue was a great success. It was restful; pictures looked well upon the walls and various pieces of furniture which she and James had acquired from their relations seemed to be settling down together uncommonly well.
This story gives one more general impression of what farming actually entails, rather than enough detail to serve as a how-to book, but it’s a vivid insight into how poor roads and poor weather can isolate one from the outside world.
I enjoyed seeing Rhoda find her feet -- and find time to still pursue painting. I loved seeing more of Mamie. And I didn’t mind spending time with James and Rhoda’s friends, but they rather became the focus towards the end and maybe I’d have liked this book more if that hadn’t been the case?
Stevenson has a tendency to end her stories rather abruptly -- she reaches the point where her reader knows what will happen next and leaves it there, rather than showing the conversation the characters are about to have (or whatever). It didn’t bother me so much when I had a sequel I could dive into, but this time I didn’t just want to know that everything was going to turn out okay, I wanted to see how certain characters would react!
For years, Stevenson has been on my list as “someone to read more books by some day”. But I liked these four books more than I expected to! And with more Stevenson audiobooks on Scribd, I’ll likely read some more very soon. Originally @ Dreamwidth.
• Bel Lamington (1961) (audiobook): This is about a young woman who works in London as a secretary for a shipping firm.
It’s a very gentle sort of story. Bel makes some unexpected new friends, starting with a neighbour, who wants to paint Bel in Bel’s rooftop garden, and someone she knew slightly at school, who invites Bel to stay with her in the country.
Although it’s not just gardening and picturesque scenery and new friendships -- Bel also encounters difficulties at work while her boss is overseas on a business trip. That’s very stressful for her, because Bel cares a lot about her job and she doesn’t have any family she can turn to in a crisis. I could predict how everything would all ultimately turn out -- but I was surprised by some of the turns the story took before it got there.
Verdict: Delightful. And, perhaps because the two experiences are so different, I have only just registered that the story is framed by Bel being painted. Oh, I see.Gradually, in spite of the soot and the smoke and the depredations of pigeons, the flat roof had become a tiny garden, a piece of the country wedged in amongst the bricks and mortar of the city. Some plants refused to grow, they pined for their proper milieu as Bel herself had pined, but others consented to bloom quite cheerfully. They had to be coaxed, of course, watered and drained and repotted, their leaves sponged and their roots cosseted with bone-meal, but Bel had no other hobby and when she returned from working all day in a stuffy office it was delightful to climb out of her sitting-room window and enjoy the pleasance which she had created. The little garden was wonderfully private, it was not overlooked by the windows of the surrounding houses; she could take a deck-chair and sit there enjoying the colour and fragrance of her flowers. She could see the sky, blue and hazy above the chimneys; often she sat and watched the sky darken and the stars appear.
But the little garden was a summer joy, there was nothing much to be done with it during the winter, so Bel was glad that winter was over and Spring was here.
I would have embarked on the sequel immediately if Scribd had had the audiobook for Fletcher’s End. So instead I chose the first book about the Dering family -- several of Bel’s new friends are Derings, or else their relatives, and I wanted to read more about them.
• Vittoria Cottage (1949) (audiobook): Caroline Dering, a middle-aged widow, lives at Vittoria Cottage. Nothing too dramatic happens. There are some dinner parties and some incidents involving neighbours. The Derings befriend a newcomer to the neighbourhood, Robert Shepperton. Caroline’s eldest daughter gets engaged and no one is very happy about it; Caroline and her sister (the actress Harriet Fane) visit each other; her son James returns home after three years in the army. And so on.
But this is a fascinating insight into postwar life in England, with rationing and rules about what one must do with eggs if one keeps more than a certain number of hens. And I like that Stevenson considers the concerns of a middle-aged widow worthy of this sort of attention -- and of this sort of romance. She saw beauty in ordinary little things and took pleasure in it (and this was just as well because she had had very little pleasure in her life). She took pleasure in a well-made cake, a smoothly ironed napkin, a pretty blouse, laundered and pressed; she liked to see the garden well dug, the rich soil brown and gravid; she loved her flowers. When you are young you are too busy with yourself -- so Caroline thought -- you haven't time for ordinary little things but, when you leave youth behind, your eyes open and you see magic and mystery all around you: magic in the flight of a bird, the shape of a leaf, the bold arch of a bridge against the sky, footsteps at night and a voice calling in the darkness, the moment in a theatre before the curtain rises, the wind in the trees, or (in winter) an apple-branch clothed with pure white snow and icicles hanging from from a stone and sparkling with rainbow colours.
(I’m not sure how I feel about Stevenson’s portrayal of Caroline’s “daily help”, Comfort Podbury. Caroline obviously values Comfort’s friendship as well as her work -- Caroline has a lot of affection, sympathy and respect for Comfort, and so, it seems, does the author. But Stevenson is also very unflattering about Comfort’s obesity. Does that undermine the sympathy?)
• Music in the Hills (1950): I was so eager to read this I didn’t wait until I could get the audiobook through Scribd and just got the ebook. This feels more like a spinoff than a direct sequel to Vittoria Cottage -- although James Dering’s story properly begins in Vittoria Cottage, I think this could standalone.
James Dering has come to Scotland to stay with his aunt and uncle at Mureth, and learn about farming. I knew how James’ romantic endeavours would unfold -- he and his wife appear in the later novel, Bel Lamington -- but even with that foreknowledge to make things extra predictable, I wanted to keep reading. This has such a strong sense of place! I can so easily, so vividly, imagine the green hillsides, dotted with sheep, and the vast sky, and the fireside comforts of Mureth House.
I like James, and I particularly like his aunt and uncle. Mamie and Jock have been married for years and weathered disappointments (they wanted children), and it’s so obvious how content they are with their life together. Their contentment radiates through their home -- and through the story. Quite often, James noticed, Jock and Mamie communicated their ideas to one another without words. They were so near each other, so perfect for one another, they were two halves of a complete whole. It was a good thing to see, but it made James’s heart ache. How lovely it would be to have somebody like that, thought James, to have somebody who cared frightfully if you had a headache or happened to cut your finger, somebody who shared everything with you, who knew your faults and weaknesses and went on loving you more and more!
James had told her a great deal about Mureth, but descriptions, however glowing, rarely do justice to their subject, and Rhoda found Mureth more beautiful than she had dreamed. Those old stone barns -- what a gorgeous colour they were! And the whitewashed cottages with their shining windows and neat little front gardens full of bright flowers! The view down the valley was wide and free; the winding river, the rounded, rolling hills. The air sparkled so that it was a positive joy to breathe… and over the whole place there was a stillness, a peaceful sort of feeling; it was like the feeling one has when the words of a benediction have been uttered and have died away.
• Winter and Rough Weather (1951), alt. titled Shoulder the Sky: This follows directly on from Music in the Hills. James and his new wife have come to live across the river from Mureth at Boscath. James has new responsibilities on the farm, while Rhoda has to adjust to an entirely new life -- without electricity or a telephone.Boscath Farm-house was small but Rhoda was pleased with it; the rooms had been painted and papered and her colour-scheme of dove grey and turquoise blue was a great success. It was restful; pictures looked well upon the walls and various pieces of furniture which she and James had acquired from their relations seemed to be settling down together uncommonly well.
This story gives one more general impression of what farming actually entails, rather than enough detail to serve as a how-to book, but it’s a vivid insight into how poor roads and poor weather can isolate one from the outside world.
I enjoyed seeing Rhoda find her feet -- and find time to still pursue painting. I loved seeing more of Mamie. And I didn’t mind spending time with James and Rhoda’s friends, but they rather became the focus towards the end and maybe I’d have liked this book more if that hadn’t been the case?
Stevenson has a tendency to end her stories rather abruptly -- she reaches the point where her reader knows what will happen next and leaves it there, rather than showing the conversation the characters are about to have (or whatever). It didn’t bother me so much when I had a sequel I could dive into, but this time I didn’t just want to know that everything was going to turn out okay, I wanted to see how certain characters would react!
For years, Stevenson has been on my list as “someone to read more books by some day”. But I liked these four books more than I expected to! And with more Stevenson audiobooks on Scribd, I’ll likely read some more very soon. Originally @ Dreamwidth.