The Two Mrs Abbotts - D. E. Stevenson

It's that stage on a Sunday evening when I try and persuade myself that bunging on a mixed wash is basically all the housework I really needed to do (it isn't), worry about what work will bring tomorrow, and wonder why I didn't write this post hours ago (I was probably looking at twitter). However I'm here now and ready to think about 'The Two Mrs Abbotts' (Persephone book 104). It's both an obvious and a curious choice for Persephone - obvious because as a sequel to 'Miss Buncle's Book' and 'Miss Buncle Married' (Persephone's 81 and 91 respectively) it makes sense to complete the trilogy. Curious because this isn't Stevenson at her best (that would be in 'Miss Buncle's Book') which is not to say that the book is without interest or isn't enjoyable (it's both interesting and enjoyable), unusually there is no preface or afterword (we are directed to the earlier Buncle books instead) which I also think suggests that this one has been published for slightly different reasons. 

Plot wise there isn't much to say. Barbara Buncle (now Mrs Abbott) plays quite a small part in the action most of which centres around the household of her niece by marriages - Jerry - the other Mrs Abbott. There is a touch of romance and a bit of adventure but nothing that really counts, what interested me was the view of war time Britain that I got from this - one that was subtly but disturbingly different from any other home front sort of book I think I've read, especially Thirkell's 'The Headmistress' from a few weeks ago.

The first surprising thing is how little Barbara's life has changed with the war, her home is still well ordered, her husband is to old to have been called up so is still engaged in his publishing business, she still has a cook and a nurse for her children - apart from having to walk more and think a little bit harder about meals there's no outward sign of conflict. For Jerry the situation is rather different, her husband has gone, her business is all but closed, she's turned her home into a sort of canteen for local soldiers - in many ways her life is on hold, it's certainly turned upside down. 

Really though what was most striking was how segregated life is. Men and women live separate lives (one passage makes it clear how wide a gulf of wartime experience there is between Jerry and her husband Sam), the soldiers who use the house use the kitchen and back premiss - Jerry and her old governess Markie are on the other side of the baize door. Town in the form of a family of refugees refuses to mix with country; Mrs Boles removes herself and her children back to London disturbed by the ideas they are picking up. Class is still more rigidly segregated, the Boles family are definitely common and also dirty and dishonest, everybody is glad to see the back of them - it takes a week to clean the house to something like normal after they've gone and then Elmie the 14 year old daughter returns. When she does Jerry and Markie agree to take her in without informing her parents the rationale being that she's better off in the country and away from their influence. Elmie is described as an intelligent girl who turns into a nice looking child with the right care and you would think having fallen into the hands of a committed educator (Markie) that she might have a bright future but instead she's trained as a housemaid - something that I found rather jarring. There is also the matter of Pearl - another common young woman from London who has enthralled a young man by the name of Lancreste Marvell, and although nobody likes him they still don't think Pearl 'suitable'. Naturally soldiers and civilians remain somewhat segregated, and so do the Abbott children from their parents. 

I'm in the habit of thinking of the war as a time when social boundaries started to relax and crumble, Stevenson is obviously holding out against that but also, I presume, illustrating how rigid some of those codes actually were. It doesn't always endear me to her as a person but it's an interesting insight. The other moment of insight she offers is in Barbara's dealings with her children - Simon and Fay. Fay is still at the chubby almost a baby stage (about 4 I think) Simon at roughly 7 is something of a menace. Turning into the golden child of her imagination he is the apple of his mother and nurses eye but there is something off about Simon. He shows Barbara how little control she has over him one night when he behaves badly at bedtime, and worries her again when he lies easily to his nurse about an expedition to buy her a birthday present. Barbara know this lie is harmless and comes with the best of motives but it makes her uncomfortable showing as it does that children don't always remain innocent and beguiling creatures. Stevenson was good on children in 'Miss Buncle Married' too which makes me wish she had explored this particular relationship a little further. 

Miss Buncle Married - D E Stevenson

I thought 'Miss Buncle Married' would make for nice gentle holiday reading (how long ago that seems now) and I was right. It's years since I read 'Miss Buncle's Book' and it turns out my memories of it are vague - I think that Miss Buncle writes a book using her neighbours as the characters, and then the things she invents for them come true (or something rather like that), it all gets rather fraught and eventually Miss Buncle is forced to flee the village  - which she does, and falls into the arms of her rather nice publisher Arthur Abbott in the process. 'Miss Buncle Married' picks up the story about a year down the line. Barbara Buncle is now Mrs Abbott and very happy with her Arthur, but if there's a fly in the ointment it's this - they're too popular. Instead of spending time together it's a constant round of dinner parties and bridge which neither of them are really enjoying.

The answer is to move and what follows is a long search for the perfect house, some crazy coincidences, the threat of another novel, and some suitably happy endings. D E Stevenson was a prolific author, and extremely popular in her day, but the majority of her books are distinctly average, 'Miss Buncle's Book' it seems, was the exception that proved the rule - it's genuinely charming. 'Miss Buncle Married' appeared a couple of years later and is 'dedicated to those who liked Miss Buncle and asked for more'. I seem to remember that after Miss Buncle first came out Persephone stated quite clearly that they wouldn't publish the sequels because they simply weren't good enough - taking the book on it's own merits this is quite true, it's a fun read, but lacks the extra something that Persephone books normally have. That said I guess they re-printed it for the same reason Stevenson wrote it - for those who liked Miss Buncle and asked for more, and really what better reason could there be? Not every book has to be a masterpiece and before it was reprinted second hand copies of 'Miss Buncle Married' where around £50 a throw.

It's by no means a bad book, there are plenty of moments when Stevenson offers a piece of real insight or something which made me laugh out loud and for anybody (like me) who enjoyed Miss Buncle it's well worth the time spent on it. There is one thing that really stood out though. The Abbott's new neighbours have 3 children; an older son who despite his angelic appearance leans towards the demonic, a younger son who is placid and reasonably ordinary and inbetween a daughter who clearly has obsessive compulsive issues. There is a heartbreakingly sad little portrait of how she deals with her anxieties towards the end of the book - and it's those moments that make all the difference.