Return to the West - Mabel Esther Allan

Derrin Lennox is 18 years old & on holiday in the Western Isles with her parents. Her father just wants good fishing weather & her mother is already complaining about the lack of amusements. Derrin is tired of being treated like a child & unenthusiastic about the imminent arrival of Ian MacKinlay & his family on their yacht. Mrs Lennox approves of Ian & hopes that he & Derrin will marry. Derrin likes Ian but is not in love with him. She is instantly attracted to the village of Ardglen & the surrounding countryside & just as attracted to Keith Rossiter, an artist who spends as much time as he can there. Keith's London friends, Adela & Grant Marriott, are visiting & soon the four of them are playing golf, swimming in the Sound & spending a lot of time together. Ian's arrival is not welcomed by Derrin who is already falling in love with Keith.

Derrin's absorption in her new friends upsets Ian who becomes sulky & unreasonable. Derrin's parents also disapprove & her determination to marry Keith leads to her father refusing to have any contact with her if the marriage goes ahead. Derrin & Keith marry, spending a blissful honeymoon period in a wintry Ardglen. Eventually they return to London & a daughter, Andrina, is born. Derrin loves the time they spend in Scotland but finds herself growing increasingly bored & unfulfilled. Keith is completely absorbed in his work & the house seems to run itself. Drina has a competent nurse & Derrin is drifting. Then, she meets Ian MacKinlay again & an instant attraction sparks between them. Derrin finds herself torn between her secure, happy life with Keith & the excitement of a future with Ian. Keith's determination to take Derrin back to Ardglen seems to be the only way to clarify her feelings & resolve the crisis.

Return to the West was written in the 1930s but never published in the author's lifetime. This Greyladies edition was published in 2013. In the Author's Note, Allan describes coming across the manuscript of this unpublished novel years later. "... I think this was an attempt at a "romantic" novel. Possibly it is tripe, except for the setting." I wouldn't agree that it's tripe but I do agree that the setting is the most wonderful thing about it. Allan was a prolific writer, mostly of school stories. Greyladies have reprinted several of her novels for adults & I've enjoyed all I've read so far.

Allen's real strength in the books I've read is the sense of place, especially when that place is Scotland. Ardglen in this book was based on Glenelg which she used as a setting many times. Glenelg is near Oban on the west coast & Skye is featured in this book as well as the wild countryside of the hills & lochs. It's obvious that Allan loves Scotland, the people as much as the place. The MacDonells at the Manse, Janie MacNeil who cooks for Keith in his cottage, the locals Derrin meets at the harbour & at the dance she sneaks out to, are all fully formed characters & I enjoyed all the Ardglen scenes. The romance plot was spoiled a little for me because I couldn't see Ian as a romantic rival to Keith at all. Of course, I'm not a spoilt 18 year old but I found Ian really unpleasant, from his sulks to his quite menacing physicality when he tries to force Derrin to love him just because he's in love with her. I couldn't see that a few years in Cuba could have made him a more attractive prospect. Keith, however, was definitely my idea of a romantic hero. He's gentle, modest, kind & very realistic about the potential problems in a marriage between a man in his 30s & a girl of 18, even when Derrin is too starry-eyed to see anything but romance. His affinity with the landscape & his kinship with the locals is also very attractive. Return to the West is an absorbing story & if the romantic conflict seemed a little too manufactured for me, the Scottish scenes more than made up for it.

New arrivals

Some books that I had on pre-order & standing order have arrived over the last week or so & a few impulse buys as well.
At the top & bottom of this pile are the latest books from Slightly Foxed. The latest SF edition is I Was A Stranger by John Haskett, the WWII memoir of a soldier hiding from the Germans in Holland after the Battle of Arnhem in 1944. I'm also collecting the SF Cubs, Ronald Welch's series of historical novels for children. The latest is Captain of Foot, set during the Napoleonic Wars.

These lovely Crime Classics from the British Library seduced me with their covers taken from railway posters of the 1930s. I'd never heard of John Bude but I love English mysteries set between the wars & these have Introductions by Martin Edwards, one of my favourite writers of mystery fiction.
Death goes Dancing by Mabel Esther Allan is the latest from Greyladies, a mystery set in the world of ballet.

I must have seen a mention of Willa Cather's One of Ours on the blog of someone taking up the LibraryThing Virago WWI challenge but I'd forgotten that when I ordered it. I only remembered when I read Heavenali's review of it this week. The Virago edition is no longer in print, unfortunately, but I love Vintage UK & US editions. This isn't the cover I thought I would receive but I love it even more.

Two Penguins next. I read this review of Charlotte Brontë's juvenilia, Tales of Angria, by Kate at Vulpes Libres.

Even though I already had this 1980s Penguin edition of the juvenilia of Charlotte & Jane Austen, I had to have this new edition. There are a couple of stories in this edition that aren't in the older one & the Introduction is extensive. It's been too long since I read about Angria.

The New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs edited by Steve Roud & Julia Bishop was another impulse based on the beautiful woodcut on the cover. I am interested in folk songs, especially the lovely arrangements of many of them that were composed in the early 20th century by Ralph Vaughan Williams & Gerald Finzi, among others. Especially when they're sung by Bryn Terfel.

Finally, some history. I heard a podcast with Helen Castor recently & was reminded that I'd enjoyed her TV series about the She-Wolves of English history (Empress Matilda, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Isabella of France & Margaret of Anjou) but hadn't read the book. The Third Plantagenet is John Ashdown-Hill's latest book about George, Duke of Clarence, brother of Edward IV & Richard III. Was he really drowned in a butt of malmsey in the Tower? Was he really as unpleasant as I've always thought him? I'm afraid I always think of him as "the ineffable George" as Josephine Tey describes him in The Daughter of Time. Alan Grant also says, "George could obviously be talked into anything. He was the born missionee." I'll be interested to discover if there was more to him.

Sunday Poetry - Mabel Esther Allan

This week's poem combines my reading this week with one of the new books that have just arrived on my doorstep. I've read a couple of books by Mabel Esther Allan. She was mostly known as a writer of children's books but she also wrote for adults. Girls Gone By & Greyladies have reprinted several of her books & I've just bought the latest Greyladies reprint, Death Goes Dancing, a murder mystery set in the world of the theatre.

I've just finished reading a wonderful book of letters written during WWII, A Vicarage in the Blitz, by Molly Rich. I'll be posting about it next week but it's made me want to read more books set in WWII. So, to combine those two themes, I've picked up my trusty anthology of women's poetry from both World Wars, The Virago Book of Women's War Poetry and Verse, edited by Catherine Reilly. This is an omnibus consisting of Scars Upon My Heart (WWI) & Chaos of the Night (WWII). This poem combines Mabel Esther Allan & the Blitz as it was written after Allan witnessed the bombing of Wallasey in Cheshire in 1941.

I saw a broken town beside the grey March sea,
Spray flung in the air and no larks singing,
And houses lurching, twisted, where the chestnut trees
Stand ripped and stark; the fierce wind bringing
The choking dust in clouds along deserted streets,
Shaking the gaping rooms, the jagged, raw-white stone.
Seeking for what in this quiet, stricken town? It beats
About each fallen wall, each beam, leaving no livid, aching place alone.

Sunday Poetry - Mabel Esther Allan

This is a wonderful anthology of women's war poetry. It's a combined edition of two earlier books edited by Catherine Reilly - Scars Upon My Heart (poetry of WWI ) & Chaos of the Night (poetry of WWII ). I've often dipped into it but I was surprised to come across this poem by Mabel Esther Allan. I knew her as a novelist - I've reviewed two of her books, Murder at the Flood & Margaret Finds a Future, & I have a couple more books on the tbr shelves thanks to the Greyladies reprints. I didn't know that she wrote poetry. Immensity was written in late 1940, the time of the Battle of Britain & expresses the fears of those left behind when their loved ones are on a mission.

You go at night into immensity,
Leaving this green earth, where hawthorn flings
Pale stars on hedgerows, and our serenity
Is twisted into strange shapes; my heart never sings
Now on spring mornings, for you fly at nightfall
From this earth I know
Toward the clear stars, and over all
Those dark seas and waiting towns you go;
And when you come to me
There are fearful dreams in your eyes,
And remoteness. Oh, God! I see
How far away you are,
Who may so soon meet death beneath an alien star.

Margaret Finds a Future - Mabel Esther Allan

Margaret Barry is a 17 year old orphan at school in Wales. Her Aunt Gwen, who had paid her fees, has died, leaving a lot of debts & Margaret will have to leave Llanrhysydd at Christmas. Margaret is devastated to be leaving the progressive, co-educational school & all her friends & her future prospects look bleak. Another aunt, her mother's sister, Ellen Pye, has written to offer Margaret a home. Aunt Ellen is the custodian of Great Melveney Hall in Norfolk, a stately home now run by the National Trust. Margaret knows little of her aunt & nothing of Norfolk & she is apprehensive as she leaves school for the last time to spend Christmas with a friend before the long journey to Norfolk.

Margaret's aunt is a kind woman who is eager to help Margaret although her means are limited. Margaret finds Melveney strange at first. It's lonely in the middle of winter & the house is vast & cold. Gradually, as she learns more about the house & its history, she begins to settle down. Her education at Llanrhysydd had been practical as well as academic & she can cook & help her aunt with the many tasks involved in running a stately home. She soon begins to meet the locals. Ludovic Thornton, the vicar's son, is desperate to join the RAF & is impatiently waiting to be called up for National Service. Ludovic has a poor opinion of girls & Margaret realises that he has quite a bit of growing up to do.

Lucy Purdy, the daughter of the estate manager, loves the Hall & used to spend as much time as she could there devoting herself to her other great passion, drawing.  After an accident that resulted in a painting being damaged, Lucy has been banned from the Hall by Mrs Pye & she drifts miserably around the grounds. Lucy is the eldest of a big family & her parents don't see art as a viable profession. Her only encouragement comes from Andrea Barradine, a former artist who now lives in a nearby village perched precariously on crumbling cliffs overlooking the ocean. Margaret befriends Lucy & tries to find a way to convince her aunt to allow Lucy back into the Hall.

Margaret plans to continue studying languages & eventually take a stenography course & work as a secretary. She longs to travel but doesn't see how her dreams could ever come true. She soon becomes reconciled to her new circumstances but there's still sometimes a lingering regret for what might have been. Then, a meeting with a stranger opens new doors & Margaret's future suddenly looks very different.

This is a charming book with lots of atmosphere & an absorbing story. Mabel Esther Allan wrote a prodigious number of books for girls over a long career. Margaret Finds a Future was published in 1954 & is one of several books about older girls that Allan wrote. Most of her books were school stories & her schools are often like Llanrhysydd, progressive schools based on the educational theories of A S Neill. Even the little glimpse we get of the school in the opening chapter is of a school where individual talents are encouraged, boys & girls work & play together & the students take responsibility for most of the running of the school.I've never been a great reader of school stories, although I did love Enid Blyton's Naughtiest Girl books. However, I do enjoy books like this one, written by authors known for their children's books & rediscovered by publishers such as Girls Gone By & Greyladies. The Introduction to this book is very informative about Allan's career & her love of location & place when writing. I was amused to read her thoughts on the cover for this book,

The heroine looks as if she is soon to die of consumption. The book is set in Norfolk and my beautiful Tudor gatehouse, the entrance to an old manor house, was non existent. The house had become a Victorian villa, wildly Gothic, with sharp turrets, and the gate was a small iron one, with cannon balls on top of the posts. The colour was ghastly too.

What do you think? Girls Gone By have, as always, reproduced the original cover. Margaret does look ill but at least it conveys the wintry atmosphere quite well.

Mabel Esther Allan also wrote a few books for adults which have been reprinted by Greyladies. I've read Murder at the Flood, also set in Norfolk, & I have Death Goes to Italy & Return to the West on the tbr shelves. One of the strengths of both books I've read so far is the sense of place. I love books set in winter & Margaret's bicycle rides through the chill Norfolk landscape are so evocative. She visits quiet villages & explores churches & I loved the descriptions of these journeys & Margaret's thoughts as she rode, either alone or with a reluctant Ludovic. This is an absorbing read & Margaret is a sympathetic character who gets on with life even when circumstances are against her & the cast of characters around the Hall are always interesting. She even manages to sort out everyone else's problems as well without being bossy or overbearing! A really lovely book.

Murder at the flood - Mabel Esther Allan

Murder at the Flood is a terrifically atmospheric murder mystery set in Norfolk in the 1950s. It’s been reprinted by the wonderful Greyladies. I love the quote on their homepage, “Quirky, witty, intelligent, unexpected. Well-mannered books by ladies long gone.” I’ve read 2 of their titles & have another half-dozen on the tbr shelves & I agree with them so far! The author of Murder at the Flood, Mabel Esther Allan, was a children’s author & this was her only published adult book. I wish she’d kept writing mysteries as I loved this & read it very quickly.

Emily Varney is the young wife of the vicar of Marshton, a village on the Norfolk fens. She’s also the detective novelist, A E Sebastian, but she has so far kept this a secret as she doesn’t think the villagers would take too kindly to the vicar’s wife working, even as a novelist. The book opens on a windy, stormy day. Emily feels unsettled by the weather & uneasy about the mysterious letter her husband, Richard, received that morning. Richard has a secret but he hasn’t confided in Emily. Emily also has a secret as she’s being blackmailed by the obnoxious Thomas Long, the local garage owner, who has discovered her other life as A E Sebastian. Long is a violent drunk, cruel to his wife & his daughter, Betony. Soon, Emily’s own problems are overtaken by the news that the river banks have flooded & a stream of villagers & local people start arriving at the higher ground of the church & vicarage looking for refuge. At the same time, Thomas Long is found murdered in the churchyard. Not only Emily & Richard seem to have had a motive for killing Long as he was blackmailing many other people, including local author, Mr Abel-Otty, a man with an eye for a pretty face & Caroline High, the young schoolteacher recently returned to the village.

As the villagers cram into the church, & the village is cut off by flood waters, pompous Mr Pike (who fancies himself as a detective) & sensible Colonel Pashley, decide to investigate Long’s murder while they wait for the police to arrive. Unfortunately, Mr Pike antagonises everyone with his insinuations & insensitive questioning & the rumours become more outrageous. Several people with a motive for killing Long, including his own wife & daughter, were near the churchyard at the critical time but it’s when the rumourmongers decide that Richard is the murderer that Emily is stung into action. She decides that her talents as a detective novelist will help her to find the truth but not before many secrets are revealed & another murder is committed.

The flood adds a feeling of claustrophobia to this story. The realistic details of the struggle to clothe & feed all the refugees adds to the terror Emily feels when she fears that Richard will be forever tainted by the rumours if the true murderer isn’t discovered. The villagers are a realistically drawn group of people, most of them frightened by the flood, worried about their houses & possessions & revelling in spreading nasty rumours to take their minds off their troubles. Murder at the Flood is a great read that I’d recommend to anyone who enjoys a Golden Age mystery.

The setting reminded me very much of one of my favourite movies, Thunder on the Hill, made in 1951. This is also set during a flood on the Norfolk fens at a convent hospital high on a hill. A young woman played by Ann Blyth is being taken to Norwich to be hanged for the murder of her invalid brother when the flood forces her & her escort to take refuge at the convent. Sister Mary Bonaventure (Claudette Colbert) decides the woman isn’t guilty & sets out to reinvestigate the crime. Gladys Cooper, one of my favourite actresses, plays a splendidly regal Reverend Mother. Beautifully shot in black & white, it was directed by Douglas Sirk who’s probably better known for his melodramas like Magnificent Obsession. It’s been raining here since yesterday morning so I may dig out my old video & watch it again this afternoon. It’s perfect weather for watching a rainy movie. Golden Age mystery movie lovers might enjoy Thunder on the Hill.