31 Coming Home - Sue Gee
I had never heard of the writer Sue Gee before several posters had mooted her as one of their favourite authors. So on such strong recommendations, I ordered this one from my local library. I absolutely loved it, I'm really sorry to have finished it this morning.
The story of Will and Flo Sutherland who meet, fall in love and marry in India, an India on the cusp of Independence and the newly installed partition. Full of their memories of what became the defining time of their lives in the balmy climate of their previous home they set sail for a grey, post war England still in the throes of austerity. Will previously an officer in the Indian army finds himself a newly installed farmer in rural Devon, the farm leased from Great Aunt somebody or other. Will and Flo have not returned to a life of luxury in their ramshackle home, in fact they were pretty much on their uppers. In many ways the book for me was somewhat reminiscent of Elizabeth Jane Howard's, The Cazalets, particularly towards the end of her trilogy when that family had emerged into a shifting post war world. Will and Flo and their two toddler children, in spite of the hardships of farming, rise to the challenge of their new life, but it's cut short after a few years of physical back breaking work, it becomes apparent Will has a weak heart and the toll of heavy labour will inevitably kill him. Realising he cannot continue as a farmer, he manages to secure a sales job related to farming and the family find themselves transported to where his patch is, in the East Midlands. This is probably the happiest times of their lives, they eventually buy a picture postcard thatched cottage in a Leicestershire village and the children are to look back over the course of their growing up years with a real longing. Idyllic days playing outside in a large garden complete with a flock of geese, cold days inside gathered around The Reyburn, local friendships, snowy winters topped off with nostalgic Christmases. Into that perfect setting there were nevertheless domestic ups and downs most notably Flo's, unfulfilled desire to become a writer, her subliminal discontent and anxiety leading to full blown depression and an eventual breakdown.
The children of the family, Baba, later to become Bea and Freddie never quite get to grips with where their mother has gone when she temporarily disappears into a psychiatric ward and Aunt Agnes steps in as surrogate mother whilst she's gone. Freddie being the male child is destined to be dispatched to Will's old prep school as a boarder at the age of 8 and although as previously mentioned, money was tight, coming from a certain background there would always be some elderly relative they could pull out of the bag who could help or even stump up the school fees. Young Freddie's carefree existence at that stage turned on a heartbeat from the happy child he was to one that was subjected to bullying, beatings, and the underhand sexual abuse, which he narrowly dodged, that such educational institutions encompassed and was generally accepted as par for the course. It blighted what could have been a happy childhood for no other reason than as his father was to recount "it's where I went" and what was apparent he couldn't really think outside the box, hostage to his own upbringing, the shifting social fabric of a different society somewhat passed him by. Freddie did come out the other end though not entirely unscathed, developing extreme anxiety in the form of facial tics, his respite from school back home and holidays which could have been enjoyed always had the black cloud of his return to school hanging over him. His sister Bea fared better at her day- school. but as a teenager she also has her problems when it becomes apparent she is suffering the onset of epilepsy.
In due course dad was promoted in his job and the family left their much loved home in the Midlands. for the Surrey Hills, where Will faces an exhausting daily commute up to London, Bea out all day at her local day school and Freddie beginning to weather his terms away at prep school. rudderless Flo struggles to find a path for herself and moons around the house having a couple of abortive attempts to write a novel based on her life without success, sometimes sleeping her life away by just going back to bed. It did scream at me, this was a juncture for a change of direction for her, she clearly needed to go to work but that was never suggested.
The books beautifully conjures up the passage of time and the trials and tribulations of a marriage, how they cope with illnesses both physical and mental, the dynamics of extended family relationships, some good , some not so. Family holidays, in rural Dorset evoked an Enid Blyton world of cycling and picnics far removed from the air mile experiences to come. Whilst there wasn't a defining resolution towards the end of the book as time rolls on into the 21st century and all the fragmented changes both within the family and wider society, the conclusion is very much through the lens of the Bea as an adult as she winds the story up.
Again one of the best I've read this year, Sue Gee is definitely on my radar now.
