📚 'Rather Dated' April: R.C. Sheriff's 'The Fortnight in September' 📚

Thanks for the thread @MotherofPearl

I'm about halfway through - I'm finding it quite a quick read

I seem to be the only person who has finished so far. I mostly really enjoyed this. It’s a straightforward story told in a straightforward way, and I can see how its carefree innocence struck a chord in 1931. I particularly loved the precise preparations and anticipatory pleasure at the start of the book (I think my cat would be dismayed only to receive milk every other day and bloaters twice a week), and the Stevens are a beautifully portrayed example of a happy family.

There were a few things I thought were less successful: I thought it was occasionally condescending, such as Mrs Stevens saying “reely” when not concentrating. And I didn’t like the holiday romance; it didn’t seem to fit in with the rest.

It also had a weird autobiographical element for me, in that DM grew up in Herne Hill, with a railway line at the bottom of the garden (their church was in East Dulwich). Her father was a wages clerk who did a dance of excitement when he had time off work; the family loved to fill a whole train compartment when they travelled by train etc. Of course the dates don’t fit - her parents were only a young couple when this was published - and they were different in other ways, but I guess this fits in with the ‘Everyman’ theme. It does seem like a window on the past.

But in one way, it’s a fantasy: the Stevenses’ surburban life shows no sign of having been disrupted by WW1. Mr Stevens really should be a veteran, like it’s author was.

Thank you for the new thread, @MotherofPearl . I’d like to continue the rather dated book club, if other people do. Just need to finish the rather strange book I’m currently reading (very introspective and lyrical, hard going) and I’ll crack on with Fortnight, which I’ve read before ages ago, so I know I’ll love it.

Thank you, MotherofPearl. Looking* *forward to the discussion on this, as always.