The Stranger’s Companion by Mary Horlock
published 2024
[excerpt] She’s wearing a cotton dress the colour of daffodils. It’s
short-sleeved with pearl buttons down the front, and too flimsy for October….
Phyllis Carey is local. Her flimsy excuse for a dress is not. It belongs to
Miranda Cecil. The Cecils are typical summer visitors and also, sadly, artists…
Phyll is very good friends with Miranda, who is extremely pretty and far more
sensible than her parents, which honestly doesn’t mean much.
comments: Is it a ghost story? A crime story? A novel about growing
up? Maybe all these things.
The Stranger’s Companion is an
interesting and unusual book, written in a dashing and original style. It’s set
in one of the Channel Islands: Sark, a small place with no cars to this day,
and has a dual timeline of 1923 and 1933.
Phyll(is) is a young girl of the island, daughter of the
postmistress: as well as the Cecils, above, she also makes friends with
Everard, a visiting schoolboy, in 1923 and they have adventures all summer,
including some practical jokes. From the 1933 perspective it’s obvious that
something went wrong with the whole group of summer visitors and locals that
year.
But that’s not the start point: for that Horlock has taken
a real incident of 1933 when two sets of clothes were found on a cliff edge,
and it took some time to unravel who they belonged to – a man and a woman – and
what happened to them. (Horlock has changed names and is not trying to explain the
actual incident.)
People come to Sark to
disappear. It is, after all, very easy to slip off the beaten track when there
are so few of them, and if the vistor tires of cliffs and beaches, they’d do
well to explore those narrow paths inland. The sheltered valley of Dixcart is
the perfect place to hide. Here the different kinds of trees knit together,
blotting out the sky, and the ground is a forager’s heaven, rich with edible
plants and herbs.
This version of Sark is intriguing – a gossip-y, friendly,
community-minded place, with a history of ghosts, folklore, magic. Are there
witches, or is that just a name for women you don’t like?
The book is narrated partially in a first person plural,
with a lot of ‘We do love our folklore’.
This could be tiresome, but actually I found it endearing and often very
funny. There are some great lines tucked away amid the dramas and occasional
violence.
We would like to point out
that there is usually a warning. Most of the shipwreck stories follow a
pattern: the locals shake their heads and mutter about a coming storm, and some
soon-to-be-dead person says, ‘Oh no, I know better’.
The First World War is always there in the background – the
men who went away and didn’t come back, and those who came back but never got
over it, and the families ravaged by it.
I’m not sure at the end that I totally understood
everything that had happened on the island, either 1923 or 1933, but that did
not affect my enjoyment – this was an intriguing and compelling story.
In a recent post, I mentioned that a book by Ruby
Ferguson was said to contain the worst letter ever committed to
print (my problem was that I couldn’t tell which one it was). And now this book
has what I consider the worst letter anyone could receive, from a vile man to a
woman. It is a shocker.
I would start a list of Bad Correspondence, and suggestions
are welcome, but it might be too depressing. The one that jumped to mind here
was the letter from Eugene
Onegin to Tatiana, in the Pushkin story. Tatiana wrote to him
first, and thus earned herself a place in a Guardian
article I wrote about women making the first move. If you read
it, there is a phrase in it that was inserted by someone at the Guardian: I
most certainly did not talk about Anne
Elliot ‘putting her balls on the line’ and was horrified when I saw it. And of course Anne's is a Good Letter not a bad one.
Tell me your thoughts.
File:François Barraud - Jeune femme en jaune (Portrait de Mme. S.).jpg - Wikimedia Commons
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File:Sark,
the Coupee, Channel Islands-LCCN2002696516.tif - Wikimedia Commons
1930s lady with cat, State Library of New South WAlesrs OE Friend, 1/1939 / by Sam Hood | Format: Film photonega… | Flickr
Apparently this was part of a trilogy set in the Channel Islands? The first one sounds rather grim, being set in Guernsey during the Nazi occupation. Not sure if I could go for a ghost story either, but I don't see it on Kindle so it's a moot point....I nearly fell off my chair at that line about Anne Elliott! (I read that post and the one on Onegin, and I think Tatiana had a narrow escape.)
ReplyDeleteMy impression is that it is only loosely connected with other books? because of the setting just. But this is the only one I have read by her. The ghost element is not an overwhelming part of it.
DeleteYes I agree about Tatiana.
I had blocked out the memory of what they did to my leap year article - it came as quite a new shock to reread!
I gathered that the settings were what made up her "Island Trilogy"--the third book is set on the Isle of Wight. Wonder why the editor (I guess) had to add that weird phrase to your article? Or would say that while doing this with her imagined male anatomy, Anne could still retain her femininity? Can't imagine you writing that.
DeleteOh that's interesting about the Isle of Wight - a very different prospect from the Channel Isles.
DeleteGoodness knows what they were thinking. Somewhere I must have a file with my orginal version, I might try to find it.
My bad geography strikes again --I should really check a map before posting!
DeleteThere is no reason for it not to be an island trilogy - and I wouldn't expect anyone not local to know how different they are! I live near the Isle of Wight, and then the Channel Isles are on the other side of the English Channel, so they don't go together in our local eyes. But she is perfectly entitled to set her book there 😀😀😀!
DeleteBack to women making the first move, there was a movie Leap Year a while back about an American going to Ireland to propose to her boyfriend. The scenery was pretty (including Amy Adams and Matthew Goode). Over here we had a Sadie Hawkins Day, based on a comic strip featuring a desperate hillbilly spinster who inaugurates a race in which she chases all the town's bachelors, and the one she catches has to marry her. (Modern versions had women just asking men for dates.) Pretty silly and denigrating, and I don't know if it is even around any more.
ReplyDeleteI can remember hearing about Sadie Hawkins when we were in the US, and not being able to work out the phrase - this was in relation to a college dance which was going to be Sadie Hawkins event - the girls would be asking the boys to dance.
DeleteAny verdict on the film Leap Year...?
I actually don't remember much about Leap Year except that it was a predictable road-trip kind of romantic comedy. Pleasant enough, nothing special IMO, but OK if you're in the mood for something light. I liked Roger Ebert's review of it.
DeleteI wonder does it get a boost in viewing figures every four years?
DeleteI just have to comment on the expression of the cat in the photo. I recently read a line about a dog that "his little whiskered face showed horror" and that cat reminded me of it!
ReplyDeleteGreat description! Cats are very good at expressions.... it's one of the more harmless aspects of social media that people post great cat faces
DeleteIf you’re looking for bad correspondence, you can't beat Henrietta Clandon’s Good by Stealth.
ReplyDeleteThe story actually begins after the protagonist, Edna Alice, has served prison time for writing them. The book explores the devastating social fallout of her malicious, anonymous correspondence.
This sounds like a must-read - thanks Victoria (I'm guessing it's you!)
DeleteThe setting for this one got my attention, Moira. I don't think I've ever read anything that takes place on that island. That between-the-war era interests me, too, especially the focus on the individuals and how the war impacted them. The book does sound unusual, but I can see why you enjoyed it.
ReplyDeletehttps://clothesinbooks.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-sirens-sang-of-murder-by-sarah.html
DeleteMargot - yes it was a really good read and the setting added a lot. The Channel Islands are a very intriguing place to visit still....
DeleteDame Eleanor - thanks for the reminder that there is a Sark book there already. And of course with it's being Sarah Caudwell, the tax and financial implications of the Channel Islands are important
This book sounds good and has many things going for it. Set on an island, a mystery, a reasonable length. (Not so sure about the ghost). But it is too expensive so I will wait and check availability later.
ReplyDeleteI can see you enjoying it Tracy: we'll have to hope it becomes more easily available
DeleteFrançois BARRAUD? I wonder if that's another of my many artistic/artisan Barraud ancestors, which is extremely possible. The best known one is probably my grandfather's cousin Francis Barraud (he of the HMV dog "Nipper"), but the Barrauds turn up everywhere in 19th century, the clock and watchmakers even have one of their watches cameo in a Sherlock Holmes, but there were also London based photographers and a number of painters.
ReplyDeleteBut I only really noticed because I thought the portrait looked rather like a young Dorothy Parker so was curious who it really was
DeleteFascinating - I wasn't famliar with the name at all. But I love that picture! I see what you mean about Dorothy Parker. The dress is rendered very well.
DeleteAnother Sark-set novel is Mervyn Peake's Mr Pye. Mr Pye wants to turn the islanders from their evil ways but ends up growing wings and little horns as he he becomes confisef between good and bad.I think the word for the book is droll...Peake live alone on Sark in 1933 and between 1945 and '49 with his family. Maeve Peake describes Peake's attachment to the island in her memoir A world away and it does sound strange and magical and, although small, hard to get know
ReplyDeleteMy apologies ....confused between good and evil.
DeleteAs to the worst letters to published, my first choices would be in Pamela Hansford Johnson's The Unspeakable Skipton, particularly Daniel Skipton's to his publisher on the latter's rejection of a mss'...you shall not spend an hour waking or sleeping without feeling my hot breath(the hot breath of my starvation) on the pig's bristles at the back of your repulsive neck...you are a sillier man even than your pug-dog's eyes and slopping lips would indicate. I will take your money without a pang.
And his letters to his aunt, whom he calls Flabby Anne, asking for money are equally bizarre.
thanks for the addition to Sark lore. A weird and eccentric character like Peake probably fitted in well.
DeleteSkipton sounds a good source for bad letters - I must investigate
I also thought of Mervyn Peake’s Mr Pye, which is a very odd little tale. It was televised, years ago, with Derek Jacobi as the eponymous Mr Pye.
DeleteI also thought of Mervin Peake’s Mr Pye, which is a very odd little tale.:it was televised, years ago, with Derek Jacobi as Mr Pye
DeleteI read some Peake when I was a teenager, but not since. Perhaps I should look for Mr Pye.
DeleteThat was me. It’s a very slender book, and an easier read than the Gormenghast trilogy, where everything and everyone is irredeemably horrible. Mr Pye is very odd indeed. I’ve never felt the urge to re-read it, I’m not sure I would recommend it.
DeleteSo I should be able to dismiss it and concentrate on books I want to read: but you are actually making it sound intriguing...
DeleteElizabeth Goudge's first novel, Island Magic, was set in the Channel Islands, in the 19th century. I started it but never finished it, don't remember why.
ReplyDeleteoh, now I'm thinking - Green Dolphin Country, the European bits of that are set on the Channel Isles I think. What a strange book that was.
Delete