The Past by Tessa Hadley - Book Review

I’ve been a fan of Tessa Hadley’s writing for some time, and have loved many of her novels, such as The Master Bedroom and The London Train.  Hadley’s writing is beautiful and precise; she can describe her characters’ emotions to a T, but she is also brilliant at evoking a sense of time and place.

In The Past, the rambling falling-down house set next to a stream in the English countryside becomes another character in the book. Its fate, whether it should be sold, renovated or kept as it is, has to be decided by the four grown-up siblings, grand children to a respected minister and poet. The future of the house runs as a theme through the book, and is the reason the four are united for a last 3-week summer holiday in Kington.

Alice is a failed actress, and at 46, the middle daughter. She has asked a young student of economics, Kasim, who is the son of Alice’s ex-lover, to accompany her. Alice's older sister, Harriet arrives alone, while her older brother, Roland, brings his new wife – his third – the glamorous and exotic Argentinian, Pilar. There’s also a dreamy teenage daughter, Molly. The youngest of the sisters, Fran comes with her two children.  

So as the reader, you think the scene is set nicely for at least some serious family fall-outs, or even some disaster, be it loss of life, dignity or virginity.

The tension is beautifully built in the first half of the novel, where we find about the siblings' childhoods, how their mother died when Fran was still very young, and how they lost their grandparents, the original occupants in Kington. There’s the promise of a burgeoning romance or two.

This is when the story moves back to the past, and we meet the grandparents, Sophie and the Vicar, and Jill, their daughter. We also get a glimpse into Jill’s turbulent marriage with her husband, the idealistic journalist, Tom.

When the story moves back to the present, the events which the author had been building up to in the first part come to pass – but mostly off camera.

And this is my only gripe with The Past. Tessa Hadley sets up the action beautifully, tantalisingly, only to let the events unfold without allowing the reader in. Only one of the outcomes is described in the present, and that too happens so quickly, as a reader you could have blinked and it’s done. The author even states this herself, ‘The whole scene was over in a matter of a few seconds.’

Still, I would recommend this novel, for the pleasure of its use of the English language and sentences such as the one below:  

‘Kasim picked another stem of grass and dusted its drooping, plumy head, heavy with seeds, against Molly’s cheeks and her closed, protuberant, mauve eyelids.’

To buy The Past by Tessa Hadley click here or tap on the image above. 

My bedside table books

As the season of buying gifts is approaching, I thought I'd let you know what books are on my bedside table, waiting to be read. Books make the best Christmas presents, in my view, so perhaps some of these will inspire you...here are four books that I think could make a perfect gift for almost anyone.

1. 'Us' by David Nicholls, Hodder

The Blurb:

'I was looking forward to us growing old together. Me and you, growing old and dying together.'
'Douglas, who in their right mind would look forward to that?'

Douglas Petersen understands his wife's need to 'rediscover herself' now that their son is leaving home. He just thought they'd be discovering together. So when Connie announces that she will be leaving too, he resolves to make their last family holiday into the trip of a lifetime: one that will draw the three of them closer, and win the respect of his son. One that will make Connie fall in love with him all over again.

The hotels are booked, the tickets bought, the itinerary planned and printed.

What could possible go wrong?

Why did I pick this book?

I, like a few other million people, loved 'One Day', so it was a no-brainer for me to buy the book. Plus, having hosted an event for David Nicholls at England's Lane Books, I know the writer is a really nice person too, so even more reason to read this novel as quickly as possible.

Perfect gift for anyone who loved 'One Day'.

2. 'Three Lives' A Biogrpahy of Stefan Zweig by Oliver Matuschek, Pushkin Press

The Blurb:

"Oliver Matuschek's fine, comprehensive biography of Stefan Zweig fills in all the personal details that Zweig's habitual reserve led him to leave out of his own memoir. Three Lives is a fascinating book."Anthea Bell

Drawing on great wealth of newly available sources, Oliver Matuschek recounts the eventful life of a writer spoilt by success - a life lived in the shadow of two world wars, and which ended tragically in a suicide pact.

Why did I pick this book?

I have loved Stefan Zweig's beautiful, melancholic prose for some time, and his life seems as tragic as the characters of his many novellas and novels, such as my favourite, 'The Post Office Girl'. So, when a few years ago, I spotted this biography in a independent book shop, I had to get it. Sadly, the book has remained unread on my bedside table, but I will make a pledge to read it before this year is over.

This would make a great present for the serious reader - Zweig has cult status amongst the 
literati. 

3. 'Elizabeth is Missing' by Emma Healey, Penguin

The Blurb:

How can you solve a mystery when you can't remember the clues?
What if you could remember just one thing?

Why did I pick this book?

I've been reading about this novel in women's magazines all autumn, and the story of an old woman who is trying to solve a mystery of her friend's disappearance really appealed to me. Especially as the woman is in the early stages of dementia and her mind is constantly playing tricks on her, so that the mystery disappearance she's really trying to solve is one that happened some 70 years ago. It's sad, funny and tragic at the same time. I'm half way through, and loving this novel.

I'm thinking of getting this book for my mother-in-law. She loves books about 'old times', and I know she would also enjoy the thriller side of this novel.

4. 'Clever Girl' by Tessa Hadley, Vintage Books

The Blurb:

Stella was a clever girl, everyone thought so.  Living with her mother and a rather unsatisfactory stepfather in suburban respectability she reads voraciously, smokes until her voice is hoarse and dreams of a less ordinary life. When she meets Val, he seems to her to embody everything she longs for - glamour, ideas, excitement and the thrill of the unknown. But these things come at a price and one that Stella, despite all her cleverness, doesn't realise until it is too late...

Why did I pick this book?

Tessa Hadley is another of my favourite authors who I've also had the pleasure to host an author event for. This is her latest novel, now in paperback, and I cannot wait to get into it!

This is a bit of a girly book, although far from chick-lit, so good for a female friend's Christmas stocking.

Don't forget to pop back to check on reviews of these books in the weeks to come - I also post all of my reviews on Goodreads - click here to become my fan.

Today's Hangover Square

I've just finished reading Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton. While I don't want to say too much about the book before we discuss the novel at next Tuesday's WEL Book Group, I think it's a remarkable novel set in a remarkable time. London in 1939, the weeks and days before the declaration of war, sets the tone of the novel in a way no other era could ever do.

Or could it?

Aren't we ourselves going through a quite a remarkable age? From the fast developing digital world, to global warming, international terrorism, last year's MP's expenses debacle, a UK election resulting in a historic coalition government, banking crisis, the recession and today's Euro crisis and the phone hacking scandal, the world and its values are changing in front of our eyes.

So which literary works of today reflect this changing world?

A quick look at the best-seller lists reveals an appetite in the UK for Nordic crime fiction, historical novels, the paranormal and romance. Don't get me wrong, I'm the first one to admit to a passion of all of these genres, but it's strange that so little of today's fiction deals with today's 'real' issues.

Justin Cartwright's Other People's Money recounts the demise of a private banking dynasty. He jutaboxes money versus art in an enjoyable way. It's an enjoyable novel, but I'm not sure it's by far dark enough to match Hangover Square.

Ian McEwan's Saturday and Solar both deal with characters who struggle with today's issues and moral values, while William Boyd too writes in Ordinary Thunderstorms about today's society and its challenges to a man who suddenly finds himself at the  margins of modern life. Again, all three books are fairly tame tales. Where is the punch, the grit?

In The Road Home, Rose Tremain comes somewhere close to describing how some-one at the margins of society might feel. Writing a story from the point of view of a Polish immigrant, who has nothing, while all around him people of London seem to be living the life of utter luxury, comes very close to the Hangover Square territory in its social observation. Still, this novel is so utterly politically correct - which Patrick Hamilton certainly couldn't be accused of being - that it loses its force as a mirror to the underclass of our time.

The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas portrays a society so cocooned that a simple event - a man slapping someone else's child (a toddler) - brings it to near breaking point. There's grit here, as well as violence and sex. Many who've read this book feel it's all gratuitous, however.

Room by Emma Donoghue in its way deals with today's issues; the abduction of a young girl turned mother. There's tension, grit and a gripping literary vehicle: we see the world through the eyes of a child who's been kept captive the whole of his short life.

The London Train by Tessa Hadley fails on the grit front, but it does write about ordinary (albeit middle-class) people dealing with extraordinary events. During her reading at England's Lane Books, Tessa remarked on today's lack of authors willing to write about modern life.

So why are we in the UK so in love with crime set in a another country, or novels set in another time? Is it because writing about the past, or reading about bad things happening somewhere else, is easier? I'm not sure, but like Tessa Hadley I'd love the great authors of today to deal with the modern world - and its obvious shortcomings - in a creative and inspirational way.

England's Lane Books gets busy!

Tessa Hadley at England's Lane Books on 21st April

We have so many events lined up at the book shop in London in May that I thought I'd share some of the excitement with you as I can hardly believe the quality of the writers we are going to be hosting.

Only last week we had one of my very favourite writers, Tessa Hadley, visiting London from Cardiff. She read from her Orange 2011 listed novel, The London Train, as well as answered intelligent and sometimes funny questions from the audience. It was a highly enjoyable evening. (Apologies for the quality of the photo - it's taken from a film).

In May the list of events is even more alluring:


Bill Turnbull 6 May
The BBC Breakfast presenter has a special thing about bees, so much so that he's written a book about them, The Bad Beekeeper's Club. The tickets for this event are selling like hotcakes. Bill is like honey to the bees. (Sorry, I couldn't resist the pun.)

Diana Athill 12 May
This lady of letters has a place in the British world of literature one can only dream of: as well as helping Andre Deutsch set up his publishing house, as an editor she's worked with authors like John Updike, Philip Roth, Simone de Beauvoir, V.S Naipaul. She's written several autobiographical books which make absolutely fascinating reading. The latest one, Life Class: The Selected Memoirs of Diana Athill is now out in paperback.

Yrsa Sigurdardottir 18 May
Chill winds from Iceland will blow over our North West London bookshop when this latest best-selling Nordic crime writer comes to talk about her craft. Engineer by day, plotter of dark murders by night, Yrsa has written six novels, three of which have been translated into English (next one Blessed are the Children will come out next year).  I will be reviewing one of her books, My Soul to Take here soon.

June is looking to be equally busy with talented, famed and acclaimed writers wishing to come and talk to eager readers at our book shop on England's Lane. Watch this space for more details soon!

The London Train by Tessa Hadley

I've spent many hours on the train between the West Country and London, so the title of this book immediately spoke to me. I'm also a great fan of Tessa Hadley and her neat writing style; of her slow but determined narrative where an extraordinary story emerges from perfectly ordinary circumstances (taking the train to London).

The story of The London Train is told in two separate parts. First we find Paul at an old people's home where his mother has recently passed away. We follow him through his grief as he tries to carry on his life as normal with his second wife in the Welsh countryside. He struggles to write - his profession - and to be a good husband and father to his three daughters - two with his current wife and one from a previous marriage. While still having vivid dreams about his mother, he receives a call from his first wife to say Pia has gone missing. Paul goes in search of his ninenteen-year-old daughter, and finds her in a 'bleakly unloved' block of council flats near King's Cross. Unwittingly, he's sucked into her new world, and into a completely different life from his own literary one in the country. 'He had always had a superstitious fear of being shut up somewhere without books; now that it had happened he hadn't even consciously noticed.'

The second story centres around Cora, who after first losing her father, then her mother, decides to leave her civil servant husband and move to her paternal home in Cardiff. In contrast to her hectic city life as an English teacher, she starts work in the local library and begins to examine her life so far: her ambitions after university and the subsequent disappointments of her affluent life with her serious husband in London. 'I don't know how people go walking around after their mother dies. I don't know how they keep getting up in the morning.'

Both of these stories are linked by a chance meeting on the train, an event which happened three years before. At this point the pace of the novel suddenly picks up and we realise why the action in previous chapters has been slow - almost hazy. This is where the brilliance of Tessa Hadley's writing really comes to its own; with suspending the pivotal piece of plot in the novel to its last part she rewards the reader. The realisation why both Paul and Cora acted the way they did previously becomes clear, their motives understandable whereas before their actions could have been interpreted as rash or inconsistent.

This method of only revealing the past after the main stories of the characters have been told can be precarious - if we don't know the juicy part, why should we be interested in the characters in the first place? But Hadley excels in describing the ordinary to make it extraordinary - and the satisfaction of knowing the characters when the plot thickens is so much sweeter than it would've been if she'd merely told us the story in the usual timeline narrative.

I urge you to go and buy this book, and if you haven't read Tessa Hadley before, there are three other novels by her to enjoy: Accidents In The Home, Everything Will Be Alright and The Master Bedroom. These are all available from good independent bookshops. (But then I'd say that, wouldn't I?)