A. L. Barker (1918–2002)

As a group of middle class women convene to discuss how to award a charitable bequest- new hassocks for the church or a handout to a struggling young mother (whose husband is incarcerated after a brutal attack) - the characters are brilliantly delineated. The social conscience of some...and the judgmental eye of others.
Trying to organise the committee is Rose Antrobus....in episodes of Rose's past- a teenage holiday with a French penfriend...time together at a Swiss finishing school...we learn something of events that shaped her attitudes.
Elegant, subtle, the kind of book you could read several times and ponder.… (mehr)

Seven short stories, written in the 40s, 50s and 60s but published in this volume in 2002.
The longest, 'Novelette', follows a disturbed and angry young man convalescing from wounds sustained in WW2, and billetted on a couple in the country. The wonderful descriptions transport the reader:
'The shadow of a cloud came crabwise, the colours were all damped down and every blade of grass flowed towards him from the east. He passed scraggy cabbages and rows of empty peasticks. Outside a shed was a regiment of flowerpots, some broken, some whole, a tumulus of stones and empty tins, around and between them all the rich weeds of summer mashed and blackened with frost.'
The outcome of the relationship between young William and the couple- draper Edward with his 'lardy smooth chin' and mild Luise- forms the basis of the story.
Also of note are 'The Iconoclasts' in which a scornful 10 year old goes to play in a windmill with a much despised 5 year old hanger-on....
The title story again features a young boy; he spends his spare time swimming underwater in the nearby river until one day...
Recommended reading.… (mehr)

If my arithmetic can be trusted, the author was 81 years old when she wrote this book. That deserves 3 stars at the get go. I'm no where near that age and my powers are maxed out with the construction of a simple review like this! A motley collection of characters gather in and around a quirky little hotel in Cornwall. All fail in their relationships with their "significant others", yet continue to seek significance with others who are even less likely to satisfy their restless spirits. Barker is one of those writers who seem to relish blighting the lives of their characters in comic-ironic ways.… (mehr)