Alive and Dead by Elizabeth Ferrars
This was a treat. Elizabeth Ferrars wrote a shed-load of books from the 1940s to the 1990s - there’s quite a few of them on the blog, but still a lot to go. There are a number of different series, and although all are at least semi-traditional crime stories, she varied her pace, style and settings a lot. (Also the quality, in my view). This one resembles a Barbara Pym book rewritten by Celia Fremlin, or vice versa. So that can only be good.
We see everything through the eyes of Martha Crayle, a
middle-aged woman who lives in a small town in the Midlands, and volunteers at a
(fictional) organization called The National Guild for the Welfare of Unmarried
Mothers. As she is about to leave one afternoon, a pregnant young woman turns
up in need of help and, specifically, a place to stay. Martha takes her to her own
home – she does this to help sometimes anyway, but this time there is no-one to
consult so no formal arrangement.
Well, all crime readers know that this is not going to be
simple, and that Amanda, the young woman, will have secrets. Stuff will happen.
And it does, laid on fast and hard – BUT, we’re not talking (say) Stanley Ellin
territory here. There are crimes and murders but it’s always got that Barbara
Pym background, the domestic setting. All the action takes place over a very short period of time, a
couple of days, and is divided between Martha’s house and the office. There is
a hotel opposite the office which plays a huge part in the action, but I don’t
think Martha ever even goes there. (I felt this story would make a terrific
old-school stage play.)
Another unmarried woman, Sandra, turns up, and ends up in
Martha’s house too. Someone is shot in the hotel. Someone breaks into the
house. Both of the young women have boyfriends, one of them has parents, and
everyone gets involved and comes to Martha’s house and goes away again, and
comes back. She meanwhile is realizing two chops won’t do for these numbers, so
is buying a chicken to roast. (The true Pym/Fremlin touch)
But what IS going on, are these people connected? Is
pregnancy the key connection or not? Who is telling lies?
This was all most enjoyable – a proper story with some
quiet humour. I hadn’t the faintest idea what was going on, and looked forward
to finding out.
Martha lives in a former boarding-house, and has a leftover lodger, Mr
Syme, who also gets involved, and is an excellent character. The book is part
of a series featuring policeman Andrew Ditteridge, who turns up relatively late on – but he is very much a minor actor compared with Martha.
She has grown-up sons and has a splendid phone conversation
with one of them. He has seen a news report, mentioning his mother’s street:
‘I thought that might be our
house, Mother,’ he said
‘I don’t see why you should think
that,’ Martha said. ‘It seems to me an extraordinary conclusion to jump to.’
‘All the same, it is
our house isn’t it?’
‘Well yes. But why you should
think so…’
Martha is an endearing character – stubborn and
good-hearted and not always right. She also reveals that there was once a surprising
period of promiscuity in her life, but not as if it were a big deal.
There are fascinating 1970s details – Martha thinks there
is very little stigma about being an unmarried mother, which rather took me aback
as I remember the era well. Martha thinks that only very strict parents would
mind, which again I take issue with: this was all swept away in the next ten
years say, but back then the girls were ‘in trouble’ and it was a big
deal, and the attitudes of people in the book actually reflect that rather than
Martha’s view. ‘In trouble’ of course works very well in this story… but apart
from the crime aspect, it is clear that there are pressures on girls, that
others will try to persuade them to have an abortion or else to have a baby adopted,
without enough care to find out what the potential mother really wants – their wishes
were not considered much.
The Welfare Guild is very well done: you can just imagine
the quiet dusty office, waiting for the worried girls to climb the stairs. There
is a tremendous organizational structure: Martha the volunteer receptionist,
Olive the dogged, sweary secretary who does the work and takes the decisions (she would have a different job title these days), and charming Lady Furnas
on the letterhead. She is off on a cruise for most of the action, but when she
turns up has ‘a rather battered mink jacket which she seemed to consider
appropriate to wear to the office.’ Well, it is November…
And of course everyone drinks hard throughout the action, certainly
without any idea that the pregnant women shouldn’t.
The eventual explanation of all the trouble is very hard to
follow. ‘The gun. How did it get from
hand to hand?’ – asks someone at the end, and I do believe I could reproduce
the para ‘explaining’ this without actually spoilering, as it makes no sense
whatsoever.
But that doesn’t affect in the slightest my verdict that
this is an excellent book – a short sharp enjoyable farrago, with a very
memorable main character in Martha.
Martha is 53, and likes bright colours, so I thought to give
her the dress at the top rather than something more middle-aged.
Quite the contrast: there is a Rex Stout book, Champagne for One, a very good one, which revolves round people trying to help unmarried mothers. And a sly look at rich women in charities in this Ursula Curtiss book, though to be fair the charity in the Ferrars book plainly does much-needed small-scale work, whatever else is going on.
I have not read this Ferrars, so I am glad to hear this one is a good one to seek out. Some aspects put me in mind of Celia Fremlin's Prisoner's Base, as one of the main characters, has a tendency to let people stay in her house without really thinking it through consequences wise.
ReplyDeleteSorry meant to not send that comment anonymous - it's ArmchairSleuth!
DeleteSomeone who knows her Elizabeth Ferrars AND Celia Fremlin? I'd have known it was you...
DeleteI have had varied experiences, you never know what you'll get with her, but this one was a real winner. And now I must check whether I've read that Fremlin...
I do agree, her books are not uniformly good, but this does sound great. That question of the stigma of being an unmarried mother: it's a interesting question as to when attitudes began to shift. Certainly things were different by the end of the 1970s, though quite how different ... I think something depended on your social class and other factors.
ReplyDeleteI think women who lived through that era (whether they ever got pregnant or not!) had a clear view at any time of what the circumstaces were. Of course you are right about other factors being important. I feel that mid-80s was when it was normalized.
DeleteAngela Thirkell's "The Brandons" (1939, thus a wholly different era) certainly suggests that unwed motherhood is very much a matter of social class. Here's the redoubtable Miss Morris, a rector's daughter and born to be a rector's wife, at Grumper's End: "Doris said she hadn’t seen [the family's only comb] not since Friday, when Edna was combing Micky. On inquiring which of the children Micky was, Miss Morris was informed that it was the large half-caste dog. Without showing any signs of emotion, that admirable woman took a small comb out of her bag and gave it to the girls, saying that they could keep it and she would send them some shampoo powder. While they wrestled with their tangled golden curls in front of a small chipped mirror, Miss Morris wiped the kitchen table, put a bowl of water on it, and applied herself to cleaning the children of shame, who were too young to mind." The children of shame are earlier referred to as "unhallowed." But Miss Morris takes them in stride and so do others of her class, who'd be horrified if it were one of their own. Dare I think that they rather expect such conduct to replenish the pipeline of farm-laborers and domestic servants? --Trollopian
DeleteAgree, mid-80s, but life was not easy for a single mother. Good point you make too about the pressure from all sides - something rarely mentioned when the subject comes up.
DeleteAs soon as you said Ferrars, I knew I'd be interested in this one, Moira. I haven't read nearly everything she wrote, but I've liked the interactions among the characters in the ones I have read. I also like the setup for this one. It gives a look at the social views of the times, among other things. And of course, the sly wit, as you mention...
ReplyDeleteShe's definitely an author who I'd be betting you'd know and like Margot, and I am sure you would enjoy this one. I know that you too appreciate a book with sociological details of the era it was written.
DeleteI’ve never read any Elizabeth Ferrars, but it sounds interesting and comparison with Barbara Pym may just have sold it to me. And I’ll look out for Celia Fremlin as well.
ReplyDeleteShe has all kinds of characters, all ages and types, but I do think that when her later books feature an older woman, she does it particularly well. And Celia Fremlin is great!
DeleteIn one of Marsh's 30ies novels Alleyn tells a blackmail victim that her daughter would not not mind knowing she was illegitimate and says his niece "prattles away about people born in and out of wedlock as if it was a fifty-fifty chance."
ReplyDeleteInteresting.
DeleteI think that was VERY optimistic - but then she moved in theatrical circles where perhaps it was more relaxed. But having seen the effects on people I have known, I can say that Marsh and Alleyn didn't live near where I grew up....
I've always enjoyed Ferrars (E.X. over here, for some reason) and have a soft spot for Virginia Freers and her exasperation with charming-but-shady ex Felix. I remember reading Fremlin's "Prisoner's Base" and not liking it much, especially the ending, but it did keep my attention! Fremlin certainly knew how to create monstrous people. I vividly remember one of her short stories "The Locked Room Upstairs" which gave me the heebie-jeebies for a bit--nothing horrific, just unsettling.
ReplyDeleteI always wondered if EX in US was an attempt to be gender-neutral? Though why would it matter. Yes I liked the Virginia Freers ones on the whole.
DeleteI have checked my records since answering Kate, above, and I don't think I have read Prisoner's Base. Now I need to decide whether I should.