RETRO READS
FAMILY HISTORY by Vita Sackville-West
(Vintage £8.99) CAN you die of a broken heart? Attractive wealthy widow evelyn, 39, seems hellbent on doing so after a passionate affair with firebrand politician Miles, 25.
it’s 1930, and hitherto irreproachable evelyn enjoys a privileged life — servants, posh parties and onerous family gatherings at her in- laws’ country estate, where ‘ a wife knows her place’ and a man ‘is master in his own house’.
Bolshie Miles owns a crumbling rural retreat where the smitten pair rendezvous, with evelyn ‘sparkling all over from some inner source of happiness’. But
he demands work time, intellectual stimulation and political banter. She demands his constant attention. Result? Tears, tantrums, age gap . . . utterly addictive. Tissues ahoy.
CREWE TRAIN by Rose Macaulay
(Virago £8.99) FeiSTY feminists will applaud the rebellious spirit of Denham, the heroine of this satirical 1926 classic.
An idyllic, vagabond Spanish girlhood ends abruptly when she is orphaned. She must abandon her wild ways, go to live with her sophisticated London relatives, and endure their tedious, non-stop gatherings packed with jabbering intellectuals. Sulky Denham can’t do small talk, lacks social graces, never reads books.
Smitten by first love she marries Arnold, hoping to move to a seaside shack. Poor, devoted, long-suffering Arnold has more conventional plans.
Love her or find her excruciatingly irritating, you can bet Denham will never become a happy housewife.
A THOUSAND ACRES by Jane Smiley
(Everyman’s £12.99) NeVeR-ending crops stretch to the iowa horizon, farmed by three generations of the Cook family.
in 1970, patriarch Larry Cook hands over his farm to his three adult daughters. The eldest, Ginny, our narrator, unravels an enthralling story of feuds, fear, hatred, incest, child abuse, fornication, suicide, miscarriages, sweaty toil and paternal wickedness.
Phew! Never a dull moment . . . Against a soundtrack of ‘buzzing machines unzipping crusted soil’, dutiful wife and drudge Ginny cooks breakfast daily for three households before 5am, mops, sweeps, dusts, digs, docks piglets’ tails, mucks out, is treated like dirt by detestable Daddy, and spins an excellent American yarn that leaves you clamouring for more.