Xmas gifts & stalkers in nice cardis & sensible shoes

No Fond Return of Love by Barbara Pym

published 1961

 

 

Back in the drawing room Dulcie exchanged Christmas presents with her uncle and aunt.

A tea cosy and a tin of shortbread from them to her, and a bed jacket and a book about religious orders in the Anglican church from her to them.

 

I did two blogposts on this book – I am a long-time Barbara Pym fan –  back in 2013, but the book was revived on the blog during 2024 because (of all things) the names of the characters popped up. First, Dulcie – we had some discussion over Patricia Wentworth’s Gazebo, taking in a turn around Noel Streatfeild’s horrible girls with the name, and the long and varied story of actress  Dulcie Gray, while agreeing that no-one is called Dulcie any more.

And by happy chance, we were full of ourselves over the name Aylwin too. Not many people have ever been called that, but any occurrences can usually be linked with the book of that name by Theodore Watts-Dunton – which was being discussed as one of those stories which was an unimaginable bestseller in its day, but has totally disappeared now. Tosh in its finest form. All much discussed in several blogposts.

Back to the actual book. Dulcie’s Christmas here is meant to be rather dull I think, although her life is opening out, and change is coming for everyone, including her aunt and uncle. The events cover a year, starting out in September, so this is early on. I thought this collection of presents was rather good in fact – better than people trying to be original and clever with a mushroom log – but then I am prejudiced in favour of bed jackets, and could imagine reading a book about Anglican churches.*  I would certainly enjoy the shortbread, and we all like a teacosy.

It doesn’t specify that bedjacket and teacosy were home-knitted, but one does suspect….Dulcie is very keen on her knitting, particularly as it gives her something to do when forced to listen to other people droning on to her.

A worrying thought occurs - when I first read this book, more than 40 years ago, would I have thought this was a dull collection of gifts? Have I now aged into being sensible...? 

*See this post for the strange story of the Anglican novelists and the sexy nightie (not as outrageous as it sounds)

Dulcie and Viola are two single women, perhaps in their mid or late 30s– moderns might call them frenemies. They have teamed up, apparently because they have no other friends, and are wallowing in what I have called ‘stalking in comfortable shoes and a nice cardi’, pursuing a man who has crossed their paths, Aylwin Forbes. It should be bizarre, sociopathic behaviour, but Pym somehow makes it work, and it is hugely enjoyable to read about. After one expedition to a church, where they have unexpectedly found out about his childhood home, a hotel, there is this marvellous line from Dulcie:

‘Shall we go and have a meal somewhere so we can get used to the idea of the Eagle House Private Hotel and all that?’

In a plot turn that more than equals anything in a spy thriller or serial killer murder story, Dulcie and Viola book themselves in to the Forbes family hotel at the seaside, and end up coinciding there [spoiler alert] with Aylwin, his mother, his brother, his estranged wife and his ex-mother-in-law. So does someone push someone else off a cliff, or go berserk with a kitchen knife? No, nothing much happens, just a lot of wonderful conversations.

This book is as mad as a box of frogs, and great fun.

The preparations for a dinner party make for a great scene, as I love Pym’s perceptions on this kind of thing: Viola (who’s only  contribution is arranging the flowers)  says ‘I told Aylwin it was going to be quite a simple dinner.’

‘Did you?’ said Dulcie, rather annoyed.

… and they then discuss wearing their ‘old black’ dresses.

This social event should be either depressing or excruciatingly comic, but Pym makes it just very entertaining.

Pym is always very good on what people wear…There are young women – Dulcie’s niece and her friend – wearing very ‘modern’ clothes.

I liked that one of the older male friends thought he had arrived too early for the dinner, and caught a glimpse of young Laurel in her vest, but it was just a white dress ‘very bare about the neck and shoulders.’

There’s a fair amount of dressing gowns in the book, always a pleasure – Viola in lilac satin, Ducie in blue quilted bri-nylon. An important announcement late in the book is delayed by a distracted discussion on laundering it – ‘but you can [wash it], I assure you.’

A perfect book to re-read over Christmas.