Return of the Blog: A Cold Weather Book


It’s been a while since I posted on the blog – the fallout from moving house  has taken longer than expected – but I am delighted to be back, and hope to be posting more from  now on.


This book had a seasonal title, and I thought I’d better get on with doing a post before it was completely wrong. I read it a while back and have been thinking about it ever since….


The Woods in Winter by Stella Gibbons

published 1970




Stella Gibbons has certain themes, and a line in quirky young women, but you can most certainly not always tell what directions her stories are going (there are several of her other books on the blog). This was her last published novel and (of course – who else?) has been brought back into print by the marvellous Dean St Press.


The heroine is a quite splendid woman called Ivy Gover, grumpy as hell and not a kind or good word for anyone. She is living a very London life at the beginning of the book, which is set in the 1930s. Then she inherits a cottage in the country and goes off to live there: but if you think this is going to be the story of the gentling of Ivy, that she will become a softer easier person - then strap yourself in. There are various other characters swirling around her, notably Helen, whose cleaning woman she was, and the sisters with the teashop in the village, Coral and Pearl. Various other gentry and so on. Ivy has witch qualities and an ability with animals. Everyone else has problems that Ivy may or may not be able to help them with. Admirably, there is a hard cold centre to the book: cosy it is not. The good don’t always win, and nobody really changes. But watching them move around is great fun. The ending is unexpected, and there is a meltingly sad situation. There is an epilogue in contemporary times, ie early 1970s where you find out some of the characters’ fates, but you are left with questions, not everything is explained or resolved. A most unusual book, structured in an unusual way.

It almost veers into the territory of the rural books satirized in Gibbons’ most famous work, Cold Comfort Farm, but comes back from the brink, just about. It also reminded me of Sylvia Townsend Warner’s fabulous Lolly Willowes (more witches).

Coral jerked her Kasha dress down over her hips, and a gold bangle slid down one plump arm.

Kasha is a fine wool fabric sometimes incorporating cashmere and the mysterious vicuna – both vicuna and kasha come up a lot in books of the era, always to imply ‘expensive’, and usually in neutral colours and tasteful or understated. Oatmeal or beige kasha are often mentioned. Top photo from Kristine’s photostreamsame source for this one(which is Marion Davies in 1935 - she was the mistress of newspaper magnate WR Hearst and widely believed thus to be the inspiration for one of the characters in the film Citizen Kane):


 And here is another film star, Ginger Rogers, being fitted for a kasha-esque outfit.




Meanwhile Helen (the author’s alter ego according to the introduction) wears ‘a frock made out of some kind of old Arab shawl, my dear, most peculiar’ (obv it is the kasha-wearer describing it thus). Helen is also described as being delighted that someone claims that she is “ate up with sarcasm and glorying in wickedness”.





Picture, from the Library of Congress, shows the French actress, dancer, and silent film star Stacia Napierkowska.

The photo representing Ivy Gover is of a Mrs Hellgren, from the Swedish National Heritage Board.

Early on the local solicitor is contemplating leaving the office early:

Mr. Gardener, senior partner in the firm of Gardener, Elliot and Son, Solicitors, had already glanced out of the windows at four o’clock, when a cup of tea and a biscuit were always brought in to him, and decided that he would leave early.

-but Ivy catches him just in time.

There is a remarkably similar moment at the beginning of Josephine Tey’s The Franchise Affair published 1948. 

‘… at 3.50 exactly on every working day Miss Tuff bore into his office a lacquer tray covered with a fair white cloth bearing a cup of tea and two biscuits… If he went now he could walk home down the High Street before the sunlight was off the eastside pavement… Always afterward Robert was to wonder what would have happened if that telephone call had been one minute later…’

I don’t have any conclusions to draw from this, I was just interested. And also surprised to realize I have never blogged on Franchise  - Tey in general a great favourite on the blog.

Comments

  1. It's lovely to see you back! And the book is a great choice; I always appreciate a story where the characters are not always right/good, and things don't always work out for the best. It's hard to do that without the story becoming too bleak, I think.

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    1. Thank you Margot, and lovely to see you too! I hope to be more active from now on. Yes, Gibbons is very clever writer, able to do all kinds of different moods.

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  2. What's the title of that one where a family is living in a cottage just post-war? Again not as cosy as you expect...

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    1. Not sure - tell me if you think of it. There is one called Starlight that sounds as though it will be all cheery and romantic and far from it, very gritty set in a poor part of London. She can do it all though...

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  3. Yay! Glad to see you back. And it's always fascinating to read about other books by authors you only really know for one or two books - for a long time I thought Stella Gibbons was a one-book author, and then I came across her sequel to Cold Comfort Farm - which was a nice surprise! Now there are more of them!!

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    1. Thanks Daniel, nice to see you too! Stella Gibbons wrote a lot, and I always enjoy them, still many more to go. I think she's unusual in that few people have read her other books, while CCF goes on forever.

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  4. Now that is a formidable coat and hat totally suitable for a Scandinavian or Saskatchewan winter! She would need boots if she was around here this winter. I was shoveling on the deck outside our kitchen today where the snow was more than a metre thick and we are having more flurries this afternoon.

    Glad to see you posting again. Your move has been arduous. I also miss seeing you as a commenter.

    I hope your next review can move on to springtime and new flowers.

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    1. Thanks Bill, great to see you here, and I have missed your comments of the practicality of cold weather gear! (I do realize I have to post to get the comments) The move was not terrible, just very long-drawn out and I was determined to do it properly.

      I will certainly try to find something springlike. Hope you and Sharon and all the family are keeping well.

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  5. Lovely that you are back, Moira! More, please!
    It's very satisfying that when I read about Mr Gardener and the tea, I immediately thought of The Franchise Affair, and then in the next paragraph ...

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    1. Oh brilliant, great minds! I do love a connection. Thanks for the welcome. I am definitely in the mood for more posting...

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  6. Welcome back! I loved The Woods in Winter, which definitely has a hard edge to it which stops it being cosy. I think the book Lucy R Fletcher mentions might be Embury Heath - I've just finished it, after reading Simon Thomas' post. Again, there's a slght edge, and characters who are not completely likeable, so it's not quite as cosy and quirky as you think.

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    1. Thank you, it is lovely to get such welcoming comments.
      Very helpful - I am now off to look up Simon's post and probably get hold of the book...

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  7. I do want to read more books by Stella Gibbons. But I still have way too many books to read, so I don't know when that will be. I love that cover, but the ebook was a good price so I just bought it for the Kindle.

    Glad to hear that you may be posting more from now on.

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    1. HI Tracy - lovely to see you, and I do hope to catch up also with my favourite blogs and people! I am glad you were able to find it on kindle, I will be interested to know what you think.

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