Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner

6 of our group met to discuss this book, 3 others who could not make the meeting had sent input for the discussion.

We had a wonderful discussion exploring a book we had all enjoyed reading.

First up let's mention the introduction. It is all too easy in the excitement of a new read to skip the intro and get stuck in. For this book the introduction by Sarah Walters adds real understanding of the author and the story of Lolly Willowes. So, those who took the time to read it encouraged those who did not to give it a go.

The story was written in 1926, and of its time. Lolly is a girl growing up in a quiet household, the sister of two brothers who transitions through being an eligible young lady, a 'spinster' aunt and eventually an 'almost' independent woman/witch.

We felt sad for Lolly but also for Edwardian society that allowed women, like Lolly, who found themselves single and, therefore, in need of family support.

Lolly's situation raises so many questions: Why could Lolly not have continued to live in the family home? Why did her brothers feel it was their responsibility to take Lolly on? Why did Lolly accept that?

Society decreed that the large family home be mothballed and Lolly must leave the house and gardens she loved and move to a poky room in the London home of her brother and his family. This was the social norm, this is what families did with their single sisters. Initially the plan is to introduce the eligible lady to eligible gentlemen. When that fails the spinster sister becomes the beloved spinster aunt and takes on the role of being useful to the lady of the household and unpaid childminder to the children. This was the case even for intelligent and well educated women of independent means. Worse still, for Lolly, her independent means are managed by her brother. The situation, with its controls and lack of privacy, is cruel. Lolly doesn't forgive this cruelty but she does move on.

The writing is beautifully vivid - the reader can picture where Lolly is and what she is thinking. In our discussion we delved into the book and reminded ourselves of favourite lines such as:

 "London life was very full and exciting. There were the shops, processions of the Royal Family and of the unemployed...".

"He observed gloomily that daughters could be very expensive now that so much fuss was being made about the education of women."

"Herb gathering .... too useful .... she didn't want to be a white witch."

(Of cowslips)"She knelt down among them and laid her face close to their fragrance. The weight of all her unhappy years seemed for a moment to weigh her bosom down to the earth; she trembled, understanding for the first time...."

Some of our group felt is should have ended with the cowslips but others felt we would have been left hanging in a state of sadness for Lolly. Certainly Part Three takes on a different tone and style that perhaps led to the second, alternative, title for the book "The Loving Huntsman". Some of our group felt it 'dragged on a bit'.

As village dwellers ourselves we chuckled over the Midsomer Murders/Hot Fuzz style parody of the Great Mop village community that became Lolly's escape. Great Mop is somewhere in the Chiltern Hills - just far enough away from London to be mysterious, but just close enough to get to and enjoy rural life.

The characters are really well described:

• Caroline - a rather spooky, uptight and orderly sister-in-law.
• Henry - a controlling wimp of a brother who accumulates (Lolly wanted to sell the furniture but Henry had it locked up - was Lolly's lively and inquisitive mind locked up too?).
• Titus - the clingy, caring, too well meaning nephew.

Would we recommend this book? Yes it's a must read. We would all like to read more of Sylvia Townsend Warner.

Our next read is The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison and we will meet at 8pm in The Hundred of Ashendon on Thursday 21st November.

Reading Choices for Autumn

As the colder nights close in we will need a warm-hearted book to read, with that in mind here are our choices for Autumn. 

We will meet at 8pm on Thursday 26th September in The Hundred of Ashendon to discuss Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner and then choose our next book from the below.  

The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul by Deborah Rodriguez 

The story of a remarkable coffee shop in the heart of Afghanistan, and the men and women who meet there — thrown together by circumstance, bonded by secrets, and united in an extraordinary friendship.

Sunny is a thirty-eight-year-old American whose pride and joy is the Kabul Coffee House where she brings hospitality to the expatriates, misfits, missionaries, and mercenaries who stroll through its doors.

Working alongside Sunny is the maternal Halajan, who vividly recalls the days before the Taliban. Their customers include Isabel, a British journalist; Jack, a consultant from Michegan; Candace, a wealthy and well-connected American; Yazmina, a young Afghan kidnapped from a remote village. 

As this group of men and women discover that there’s more to one another than meets the eye, they’ll form an unlikely friendship that will change not only their own lives but the lives of an entire country.

Dinner with Edward by Isabel Vincent

A memoir of the author’s friendship with an elderly gentleman who was the father of one of her long time friends. Isabel meets Edward shortly after the death of his beloved wife, Paula, who he was married to for sixty-nine years. 

Isabel is invited to dinner at Edwards apartment at the behest of his daughter who is afraid that her father is giving up on life despite his promise to Paula that he would make the effort to keep going for the sake of their two daughters, Valerie and Laura. Valerie tells Isabel, ‘He’s a great cook’. Perhaps it is this, or the fact that Isabel’s own marriage is unravelling. Whatever the reason, she agrees to the arrangement. It is the start of a mutually valued friendship.

Each chapter opens with the menu for dinner. Isabel and Edward usually meet, alone or with other friends of Edward, over a delicious meal that he has put much thought, time and effort into creating.

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Unlovely and unloved, Pecola prays each night for blue eyes like those of her privileged white schoolfellows. At once intimate and expansive, unsparing in its truth-telling, The Bluest Eye shows how the past savagely defines the present.

A powerful examination of our obsession with beauty and conformity, Toni Morrison’s virtuosic first novel asks powerful questions about race, class, and gender with the subtlety and grace that have always characterised her writing.

(Toni Morrison, died aged 88, on 6th August 2019. She was the only African American writer and one of the few women to have received the Nobel prize for literature.)