At the very top of the pile of books I took with me on holiday last week was High Rising by Angela Thirkell. Thirkell is perfect holiday reading (though I am rather of the opinion that she is perfect for every situation and mood) and, after having read the twenty-one books that follow this, it seemed time for me to finally read the first of Thirkell’s Barsetshire novels, initially published back in 1933. And there could be no more appropriate day to post my review as the beautiful new Virago Modern Classics editions of High Rising and Wild Strawberries are being released today. (Can you guess what items one and two are on my Christmas wishlist this year?)
High Rising has a few minor differences from the later books in the series – some of the action actually takes place outside of Barsetshire! A film actress other than the terribly prolific Glamora Tudour is mentioned! – but it is assuredly a Barsetshire novel, ending with not one but two engagements.
The book centers around Laura Morland and her friends in High- and Low Rising. A widow with four sons, Laura took up novel writing as a way to pay the boys’ school fees after her husband’s death. Now the author of a very successful series of thrillers aimed at women and with only one son (Tony) left at home, Laura is in her mid-forties and quite comfortable. More comfortable, of course, when Tony is away at school, his presence being enough to shatter anyone’s nerves with his constant prattle (his obsession here is with model trains) and complete disinterest in the thoughts or feelings of anyone else. Laura adores her son but has little patience with him:
When, for a quarter of a century, you have been fighting strong young creatures with a natural bias towards dirt, untidiness and carelessness, quite unmoved by noise, looking upon loud, unmeaning quarrels and abuse as the essence of polite conversation, oblivious of all convenience and comfort but their own, your resistance weakens. Tony was no more trying than Gerald had been […] or John, or Dick, but she was older, and less able to deal with his self-sufficient complacency. She had sent him to school at an earlier age than his brothers, partly so that he should not be an only child under petticoat government, partly, as she remarked, to break his spirit. She fondly hoped that after a term or two at school he would find his own level, and be clouted over the head by his unappreciative contemporaries. But not at all. He returned from school rather more self-centred than before, talking even more, and, if possible, less interestingly. Why the other boys hadn’t killed him, his doting mother couldn’t conceive.
Tony, it must be said, is incredibly irritating in this book. I adore him in later books where his egoism and confidence is so advanced past that of any ordinary human being as to make him irresistibly fascinating but here he really is just an obnoxious schoolboy full of incredibly dull conversation. It is a frighteningly accurate portrayal of the average prepubescent, right down to his longing for any kind of audience at all: he is just as happy to address his remarks to Sylvia the dog as he is to any human.
The book takes place between Christmas and Easter (allowing us to see Tony on his school breaks) and focuses on a small group of Laura’s friends as they gossip and try to organise one another’s lives. The main focus of their concern is George Knox, a widower and author who Laura has been friends with for many years. He is entangled – though he does not quite realise it – in a dangerous situation with his new secretary, Miss Grey (known to her enemies as “the Incubus”). With the assistance of Laura, Amy Birkett (the wife of the headmaster of Southbridge School), and Laura’s own secretary, Anne Todd, the Incubus is routed and George is free to follow his heart – once he takes the time to listen to it. Laura is also responsible for matching Sibyl Knox, George’s daughter, with Adrian Coates, Laura’s publisher. It is an easily sorted affair – Adrian being very receptive to Laura’s guidance and occasional knocks over the head – but the exchanges between the love-addled Adrian and the exasperated Laura were some of the most amusing in the book. When he, consumed by unspoken love for Sibyl, drinks too much at a New Year’s Eve party and crashes his car when driving Laura home, her wrath is magnificent.
For me, the real delight of High Rising was getting to know Laura Morland. Honestly, I thought I had known her. I had, after all, read twenty-one Barsetshire books and Mrs Morland shows up in at least fifteen of them. I thought our acquaintance was pretty firm. I knew her as the hair-pin dropping, slightly absentminded, self-deprecating but incredibly successful author of “good bad books” and, of course, as the frequently exasperated mother of the always trying Tony. I adored her already but this book gave me even more reason to, delighting me by revealing new aspects of her character. She can be direct and forceful, not just in dealing with Tony and his friends but also with her hapless male friends, specifically Adrian and George, who both do their best to try her patience over the course of the novel. Any woman who can refusal a proposal by saying “You great mass of incompetence and conceit, you revolt me” is worthy of my admiration.
High Rising is a delightful introduction to Barsetshire and I am thrilled that for once I will be able to post a review of an Angela Thirkell novel knowing that other readers will easily be able to track down a copy if they so wish!
I’ve never read any Angela Thirkell before and really like the sound of this. And I absolutely love the cover.
I only learned about Thirkell after I started blogging but she is now one of my very favourite authors. These new editions are beautiful so there is no better time to give her a try yourself!
I’m so happy that you finally got to read this one! This book wasn’t my introduction to Thirkell, I know I read The Brandons, but this was among the first few in the early days of my obsession. Reading it at the end of the series would defintely be interesting.
Laura is one of my favorite characters, and I wish she played more than a cameo role in the later books. Now I need to go check the book to see which actress displaced the incredibly hardworking Glamora Tudor!
I am now also firmly in the wishing-the-other-books-had-more-Laura camp. Before reading this, I was perfectly content with what we did see of her but now I feel rather cheated!
This is the first and only Angela Thirkell I’ve read and I enjoyed it very much. I just haven’t found the time to get to more of her work, although I do want to.
Look at you, being so organized as to start the series from the very beginning! Since my library does not have this book I didn’t have that option when I began reading Thirkell but it is a very good place to start. 🙂 I am thrilled that you enjoyed it and hope you have as much fun with the rest of the series.
This was the first Thirkell I read, but the second, Wild Strawberries is my favorite. I have read many more Thirkells but none as good as these first two, especially W S. BTW, unlike many people I like the WW II books the least.
I think a number of the later books are better than High Rising (Summer Half, Pomfret Towers, and The Headmistress certainly) but agree that Wild Strawberries is one of the best. It was also the first Thirkell I read so I will always have a soft spot for it.
I do like the covers for the new editions, such a pity I’m running out of relatives to give AT books to! I must say I rather enjoy Tony’s conversations with the dog and I don’t find him too irritating in High Rising, but I can only manage Demon in the House in very small snippets before I want to lock him up — except one can imagine that, wherever you incarcerated him, you would return to a scene of mayhem and a barrage of explanation about how he’d used the time!
I have no one in my life to give Thirkell to! As much as my friends and family would love the covers, I know they would not enjoy the books (and doesn’t that just explain why I started blogging in the first place?).
High Rising is the only Thirkell book I have read and I must say I was enchanted with Ms. Moreland’s constant re-pinning of her hair. Such a feminine gesture and it so captured her somewhat harried personality. I will move on to Wild Strawberries. Thanks for the reminder.
And you are so right. Tony’s obnoxiousness (is that a word?) almost made me quit the book. I am glad I carried on.
I am so pleased to hear that you enjoyed your first encounter with Thirkell, Belle. Wild Strawberries is, to me, an even better book so I hope you do pick it up. But oh dear, if you think Tony is obnoxious here you’ll never make it through The Demon in the House or any of the later books with his even more outlandish behaviour!
It’s so nice to be able to get hold of a Thirkell easily. I hope Virago publish more soon,
My fingers – and toes – are firmly crossed for more!
I’ve never read AT, but I’ve had my eye on these ever since I saw Virago was bringing them out. Would the book group like them, I wonder.
I would like to think that the book group would enjoy them but I know Thirkell is not to everyone’s taste. Still, I think it worth a try!
Oh, perfect. Thank you for giving us the ‘season’ for this because as you know I’ve been wanting and wanting to start reading her again and now I’m scheduling this one for Christmas break!
PS. Karen, yes, the book club would!
Glad I could oblige, Audrey. And do, do, do read Thirkell over Christmas break! There is nothing more exciting for me than when other bloggers read and then talk about her (which is what I am hoping will happen more now that these two titles have been released).
This is my favorite Angela Thirkell book, and I loved your review of it. Laura Morland is such a great character. Mrs. Morland’s thoughts about what it’s like to be a popular author of genre novels give some real insight into Angela Thirkell’s mind.
I am so happy that you enjoyed the review, Elizabeth, and that you think it did justice to your favourite Thirkell title.
I just finished this book–my first Thirkell. You have inspired a new Thirkell convert. Can’t wait for the library to cough up Wild Strawberries!
Wonderful news, Amy! I hope you love Wild Strawberries even more (once the library offers it up).
[…] of the war, Laura Morland moves in with the Birketts for the duration, having let her house in High Rising to friends from London. This brings her into contact with members of the school community […]