#BookReview At Freddie’s by Penelope Fitzgerald
Read as e-book using a mix of Braille and TTS
Pub. 1982, 160pp
Penelope Fitzgerald wrote the introduction to my first #NovNov23 (Novellas in November) read, A Month in the Country by J L Carr, so I figured I’d lean into the connection and read At Freddie’s, her 1982 book.
This is the story of a chaotic stage school in central London and the many children who pass through it in search of a life on the stage.
Run by Freddie, a well known and loved personality in the theatre world, it’s a ramshackle place which is always under threat of closure but always manages to pull through, mainly by the charity of those in the business who adore her. This ongoing struggle is a big theme in the book along with the relationship between two teachers, Hannah and Pierce, neither of whom knew what they were taking on when they said yes to their jobs. They can’t help spending a lot of time together, resulting in a difficult relationship and at one point Hannah decides they must talk it over:
“Lyons teashops might almost have been particularly designed for the resolution of such awkward situations…In a Lyons, as Hannah had reflected, the limits of communication had to be reached by 7 o’clock, while at the same tine it was necessary to share a table or at all events to sit very close to other customers, so that although everyone restricted their elbows, their bodies and their newspapers and by a long established convention showed no signs of understanding what they overheard, they provided all the same a certain check on human intimacy.”
And I particularly like this description of the legendary Freddie ‘here she occupied an entire corner, commanding her territory, a hugely moulting royal raven sprinkled with gems”
If you love the theatre or were a theatre kid this will be a great read but equally, like me, if you know very little but enjoy beautiful writing and great characters this won’t disappoint! #Bookstodon@bookstodon
#BookReview A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr
Read in Braille
Penguin
Pub. 1980, 104pp
This is a novella I’ve been meaning to read for years and it’s delightful.
Tom Birkin’s a Londoner who’s returned from war with shellshock and he takes a commission to restore a medieval church wall painting in a Yorkshire village. The warm summer days are glorious as he gets to work, with high hopes for the project:
“I willed it to be something good, really splendid, truly astonishing… something to wring a mention from The Times and a detailed account (with pictures) in the Illustrated London News.”
To his relief he’s quickly welcomed into the community:
“In the first few minutes of my first morning, I felt that this alien northern countryside - friendly, that I’d turned a corner and that this summer of 1920, was to smoulder on until the first leaves fell, was to be a propitious season of living”
For a book of just over 100 pages it’s full of fully realised characters; from his neighbour Moon (a fellow veteran who’s also on a contract from the vicarage) to the stationmaster’s daughter Kathy and the vicar’s wife Alice - they all visit him often, interested in him and his work. The vicar’s a miserly character and there’re some very uncomfortable conversations between him and Birkin.
And the description of landscape is evocative throughout:
“For me that will always be the summer day of summer days – a cloudless sky, ditches and roadside deep in grass, poppies, cuckoo pint, trees heavy with leaf, orchards bulging over hedge briars.”
This is a beautifully written story of someone looking back fondly on a restorative period in their youth, with the gradual unveiling of the painting mirroring his own feelings of rediscovering himself. The conversational tone, a hint of romance and poignant moments of reflection on religion and war make it easy to relate to this character from another time.
@bookstodon For anyone interested #backlisted podcast covered A Month in the Country on their very first episode, calling it a rare book that everyone seems to enjoy: