Sing For Your Supper by Pamela Frankau



published 1963






[Excerpt from the book, which is set in 1926. A seaside entertainment show]

Behind the pink plushy curtains, Tubby Whittington and Susie had begun to play Here We Are on their two pianos.

The front lights went out: the curtains parted.Tubby and Susie were playing with their backs to each other as usual, but newly dressed from head to foot in silver satin, with pale blue ruffles and pom-poms, pale blue skull-caps. The midnight blue backcloth carried silver cut-outs of moons and stars.
Everybody on.



comments: Usually on this blog the book, and a description of clothes, comes first. Very occasionally I find a photo that I love so much that I actively look for some reason to feature it. (And I do have a Pinterest board called Looking for the Right Book, which shows off some absolute crackers. Their day will come, I WILL find the right books.)

This post is somewhere in between: I read Sing for Your Supper and might have chosen not to blog on it, but I knew I had this wonderful picture up my sleeve. It’s an Irish entertainment troupe from 1924 from the National Library of Ireland – I previously used it  for Angela Carter’s Wise Children, and said then: ‘don’t you just have to stare at it’. I never get tired of looking at it.

The book is about a theatrical family: it starts with the children Gerald, Sarah and Thomas coming from their separate schools to meet up with their old Nanny: then they all head down to Devon to join their (widowed) father whose concert party has a season at a seaside resort. It is clear there is something up, as they are travelling First Class, and will be staying in a nice house. Usually there is no money… Has their father found a new rich backer?

So we get the story of the family through the summer, with all kinds of revelations and excitements. I liked it enough to carry on reading, but it seemed too much assembled from the elements of other books – very much a cross between Daphne du Maurier and Noel Streatfeild (see labels below for links to endless other posts), but without the magic of either. It read rather as if she was writing for what we would now call Young Adults, then every so often remembered it was a grown-up book, and put in something a bit racy (by the standards of 1963, not either 1926 or 2020). There was far too much of people’s dreams and important thoughts – multiple characters to follow should keep the action brisk. 

There was also the usual class consciousness and snobbery, and some anti-Semitism which would have been dreadful if the book had been written in 1926, but was unforgiveable for 1963. And again, Frankau kept putting in details to show she had done her research: a dress was ‘much too short, like all this year’s dresses’. Someone wants to change the subject so ponders possible topics: ‘the coal-strike: the Prince of Wales: Sir Alan Cobham: Suzanne Lenglen turning professional.’ 

Seriously? Looked at the newspapers for that week did we? I thought this over-research, and ridiculous subsequent sentences, was typical of more modern books, so there’s a bit of historical detail for me and my historical novel about someone writing a historical novel. It seemed amateurish in the extreme, although Frankau was  a very experienced and successful novelist by this time.

But - I find it hard to resist any book about theatrical families, I just love the idea of them, if not always the execution. And this one was readable, and I wanted to know what was going to happen – Frankau set up good situations. And there were some funny moments and recognizable views: Blanche, the rather prim nanny, excuses a divorce with this: ‘It was her private conviction and consolation that though English marriages were made in Heaven, American marriages were made in America and didn’t, therefore, count.’

This book is the first of a trilogy. I would quite like to know where all the characters will end up, but probably not enough to actually read the books.

I have read several of her other books – The Willow Cabin (apparently her most successful novel) is absolutely marvellous. It is also well worth looking up her varied and intriguing life on Wikipedia.


Comments

  1. Hmmm....I can see, Moira, how you'd be interested in what happens to the members of the family. That said, though, I know what you mean about over-research and those writing style issues. And, to be honest, not sure I'm ready right now for all of the '-isms.' Still, I don't blame you for wanting to share that fabulous 'photo, and acting/singing/entertaining troupes are interesting. Probably not going to look for this one, if I'm being honest. But your review is, as always, fantastic.

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    1. Thanks Margot! I think we all have book themes that we like, although we know they are not to everyone's taste. I sometimes think I should have a blog heading 'I read this one so you don't have to'!

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  2. Susanna Tayler12 June 2020 at 14:26

    I like a theatrical novel, but this does sound a bit derivative.
    On the subject of topical info dumps, though, how about this from Dorothy L Sayers:

    "Parker’s inquiries took some time, and June lingered into its longest days. Chamberlin and Levine flew the Atlantic, and Segrave bade farewell to Brooklands. The Daily Yell wrote anti-Red leaders and discovered a plot, somebody laid claim to a marquisate, and a Czecho-Slovakian pretended to swim the Channel. Hammond out-graced Grace, there was an outburst of murder at Moscow, Foxlaw won the Gold Cup and the earth opened at Oxhey and swallowed up somebody’s front garden. Oxford decided that women were dangerous, and the electric hare consented to run at the White City. England’s supremacy was challenged at Wimbledon, and the House of Lords made the gesture of stooping to conquer."
    She's obviously writing at the time, and to be fair I quite enjoyed googling the Oxhey sinkhole and the fake channel swimmer. But for a modern writer to do that about 1927 would look very overdone.

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    1. No recollection of that, but, honestly, how awful! Ridiculous in a current novel, and ridiculous in historical. WHY do people do it? Are there readers who think 'really got a feel for the era there, that made me think I knew about the life'?

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  3. I read this about a million years ago, perhaps not long after it came out (though I would have been 13 then, so maybe late 60s?) But really, all I recall is learning there were two sets of lyrics for the shows. The innocent ones in the afternoon for the kiddies, and the more risqué set for the evening crowd. Oh wait... was there a fake rape accusation...?

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    1. It isn't a very memorable book in fact. Don't think there's a rape accusation but even over the few weeks since I read it I'm ashamed to say I can't remember. But I think I got a few hours of interest from it...

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  4. Don't think I will be reading this, Moira - but yes, fascinating photograph . . .

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    1. No, as I said to Margot above, I read it and that's quite enough. But obviously I will continue reading books like this in the hope of using that photo again! Photos of any seaside holiday always fascinating - we were only talking about Bridlington recently, on the Kate Atkinson.

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  5. I'm with Christine. Love the photo. Will pass on the book. Do you think the colours of the photo were pastel?

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    1. Mmm good question, definitely light colours and I can certainly imagine exactly how that fabric would fell, silky and satin-y. Probably cheap, but looking marvellous on stage.

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  6. I have this but won't rush it to the top of the pile! Like you, I love a theatrical book, though they don't always work out. If you haven't read The Town in Bloom by Dodie Smith (I think it was that one), there's one that did theatrical well.

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    1. Oh yes, I love The Town in Bloom, it is hilarious and I thought had a slightly different take on the genre because the heroine at first seemed like the standard one, but wasn't quite... I did a couple of blogposts on it, years ago, and was particularly pleased with the photos I found.
      http://clothesinbooks.blogspot.com/2012/05/gasp-at-dodie-smith-heroine-in-her-bo.html

      and http://clothesinbooks.blogspot.com/2012/07/dress-down-sunday-take-off-those-wet.html

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  7. I think I can happily live my life without this one thanks.

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    1. Very much not in the area where our tastes collide!

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