Yes, it is my goal to read more Australian Women Writers but I have also been collecting Virago Modern Classics or Viragoes for a very long time. I have trained my son to buy me 2nd hand copies for my birthday and Christmas. And this year I was lucky enough to participate in the Virago Secret Santa run on Librarything.
So here's my review of the first one of the 12 books I scored this Xmas.
To the best of my knowledge/failing memory, I have not read a Nina Bawden since I was a child. On my kid's bookshelf at home, the only volume I have of Bawden's is The Witch's Daughter. I don't remember reading Carrie's War and I must have liked The Witch's Daughter or I don't think I would have kept it.
This slim volume (at 250pp) is the ideal post-Xmas read. Nothing too demanding or heavy but sufficiently interesting and thought-provoking. I knocked it off in 24 hours. Mostly because I'm under doctor's orders to rest a bit (I have an aggravated shoulder injury) and so what can one do but read?
Bawden wrote this in 1991 when I was pregnant with my first child. It is set in London. Property is the currency of the day and as you can imagine, those with property or the prospect of inheriting property in London would be rubbing their hands together with glee.
Our heroine is Fanny. Fanny has been recently widowed. Her husband was in the diplomatic service so most of their married life has been spent overseas, entertaining and living in quarters with staff.
She is now living in their London pied-a-terre - a somewhat run-down Georgian terrace which, at five storeys, could be considered rather excess to her needs and not wholly suitable for a person who might need a wheelchair or some sort of assisted living in the future.
Fanny is the younger sister to Delia. Fanny was pulled out of school early and sent to secretarial college once it was established she had no great intellect fit for further education.
But Fanny is feisty and has a strong desire to do what is "right". She goes to the aid of a young man who is being bashed in the street late at night on her way home alone from a restaurant and, for her trouble, is knocked unconscious and loses her memory of the inciting incident.
I won't tell you anymore because that would ruin the story. It is, I guess a bit of a thriller, but also a bit more than that. Maybe it's just my age but, as I head towards pensioner-land, I am acutely aware of how, like dominoes, just one accident or slip can lead to a certain vulnerability both physically and mentally. It is so annoying not being as strong or self-sufficient as I used to be. And pain makes you cranky and miserable. As my father says, "Old age ain't for sissies!"
I was particularly fascinated by Bawden's description of Fanny's increasing anxiety. Her description is spot-on; the crippling effect of not being able to go anywhere or do anything because your legs (or rather your mind) just will not take you.
Lest you think this all doom and gloom, I want to assure you that Fanny receives help from some unexpected quarters, including her own gumption and survival instinct.
I was saddened to read that Bawden and her husband were in a very serious train accident in 2002 - the Potters Bar rail crash. Her husband Austen Kark was killed. Bawden suffered a broken ankle, arm, leg, shoulder, collarbone and ribs. Can you imagine? Her testimony was instrumental in ensuring justice for the victims of the crash.
I suspect much of the material in this novel was taken from real life as Bawden's husband was a managing director at the BBC (Fanny's son works for the BBC) and Fanny lives on a canal as did Bawden and her husband at Islington.
I commend Family Money to you.
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