Thursday, May 15, 2014

An Episode of Sparrows - Rumer Godden

'An Episode of Sparrows' is the second of the current Rumer Godden's that Virago have released as part of their children's fiction series. It was originally published on an adult list but it makes sense as a children's book. It makes me think of 'The Secret Garden' but the way I remember it as a child where it was very much Mary's story rather than as I found it more recently - very much Colin's story.

In this case the lost child is Lovejoy Mason, her mother, a singer of questionable morals and with no noticeable sense of responsibility has fallen on hard times and basically dumped Lovejoy with her landlady, no money, and no forwarding address. The landlady is kind enough but she has her own concerns, a child, especially one as strangely adult as Lovejoy can be is more than she really feels she can cope with. For Lovejoy there's nothing, she has nothing of her own to speak of, no family, and only the kindness, or otherwise, of those around her to rely on.

It's post war London, and whilst the streets are still punctuated by bomb sights I think rationing has ended so I'm guessing the book is set when it was written around 1955. Lovejoy lives on a slightly slumy street that is attached to one of those swish London squares complete with an enclosed central garden. The residents of either are worlds apart rather than yards, though for the residents of the square it's a world of disintegrating privilege.

Everything is sparked off by a fallen packet of cornflower seeds. A very small boy (Sparky) finds the packet but makes the mistake of examining it in plain view - it's promptly grabbed by Lovejoy who becomes obsessed with the idea of growing them, she casts around for a suitable spot to make a garden finally finding a place in an old bomb site. She steals odd seeds from packets in Woolworth's to plant, and steals from the church candle box to buy a trowel and fork. Sparky gets his revenge on Lovejoy - who hates with a passion - when he tells the 13 year old Tip Malone and his gang of feral boys that Lovejoy is appropriating their patch. They may be children but it's dangerous, boys and girls don't much mix and when they do it's very much the worse for the girls. Within minutes the embryo garden is destroyed. For Tip however there is remorse, and so he helps Lovejoy create another garden and that in turn leads to all sorts of problems - and then solutions.

A garden, the joy of watching living things grow, a trio of children who need each other to make sense of an often unfriendly adult world, and a certain amount of faith - these are the things that remind me of 'The Secret Garden' but Godden is a very different sort of writer and what she brings to this is quite distinct from Burnett, in some ways it's more truthful, but it's also a redemptive story with a much wider scope and the result works for adults and children alike. In her preface Godden says the germ of the story came from an actual incident which happened to her not long after she moved back to England in 1945, it took ten years to grow into this novel - it was worth waiting for.



8 comments:

  1. I've got a nice 50s' edition of this which I'm yet to read though now I must -- as an adult reader I think I'm much more freaked out about what children undergo in her books than I ever was with that sort of semi-child-abusing genre as a younger reader. That line between adventure and terror is well done in The Greengage Summer too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I really enjoyed the Geengage Summer which is apparently based on an episode from her life, but in the book I believe she deliberately chose to lower the ages of the older children which makes it much more disturbing. This one is more of a story about children which feels like it might actually be for children - even though originally intended for adults. It isn't as disturbing as many of her books that I've read - get it off the shelf!

      Delete
  2. I loved this when I read it last year ... about thirty years since my first reading. I believe there was a film made of it, but I doubt if it's stood the test of time.
    I've just ha d lunch at my friend Elizabeth's the Picpoul de Pinet was very good, thanks for recommending it to her!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm glad you liked the Picpoul, I love that wine. I'm really pleased that her books are coming back into print, I missed them when I was younger, only discovering her through the film version of The Black Narcissus sometime in the last 10 years, it's a welcome second chance.

      Delete
  3. I first read this as a very young teenager, in maybe 1960 so not long after it was written, definitely considered an adult book as it was a Book of the Month club subscribed to by my stepfather before his marriage to my mum.
    I have just reread In this House of Brede, would love to get hold of this one again.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It's one of those books that definitely works for both adults and children alike, Virago are bringing out more of her titles next year which I'm increasingly excited by, she's such an interesting writer.

    ReplyDelete
  5. You've re-awakened my interest in Rumer Godden. A couple of summers ago I read her books back to back and then needed a break! Time to return, I think.

    ReplyDelete
  6. She's an amazing writer but I imagine it would be easy to overdose a bit on her, it's such a distinctive voice. There are some titles I'd not heard of before coming out from Virago next year - I'm quite grateful that they're being drip fed to us.

    ReplyDelete