A life in a day

I don't often re-read books. I feel there's always some new wonderful thing to discover, so I follow the inviting-looking path winding off into the hidden distance and see where it takes me, but occasionally I revisit well-trodden ways. This book is one to return to. One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downes describes the events of a summer's day in 1946, charting the post-war world and the shifts in society as seen through a typical family in a typical English village.

Although it describes a vanishing - and now almost antique - way of life, it is a rhapsodic book, written with a poet's sensibilities, and the eye of a true observing recorder. Its brevity only intensifies its focus so that every word counts. Each page contains a carefully drawn sketch of a world found within an apparently insignificant moment, and its quality never wavers:

' "When I think how you were brought up," Mrs. Herriot had said reproachfully, conjuring up geranium-urned terraces over Italian lakes and tennis-party lemonade by the sweep of her knitting needle.'

'[Laura's] mind was a ragbag, in which scraps of forgotten brightness, odd bits of purple and gold, were hopelessly mixed up with laundry lists and recipes for doing something quick and unconvincingly delicious with dried egg.'

I discovered Mollie Panter-Downes through two collections of her short stories -

"Good evening, Mrs. Craven" and "Minnie's Room", which I recommend highly, too. In fact, so much do I admire her work that I called one of my dogs after her, and really there can be no higher praise.

Comments

[Fiberjoy]

Oh, I'm so glad I came to your blog via Jo(Celtic Memory Yarn). The books you mention conjure up memories of favorites. Have you read Elizabeth Goudge? As a young person I loved reading Vian Smith's horse stories.

I used to work in a public library followed by a short time at the Mt Angel Abbey library with its collection of 300,000 books. I miss working among books. I'll have to look into Mollie Panter-Downes. :-)

[Helen]

I re-read books quite a lot, partly because I forget a lot and partly because I associate certain books with certain times of year and I like to re-read them at that time (pretentious, moi?). I re-read the letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh most years because they cheer me up so much and remind me how strong friendships can be, so I'll be interested to hear what you have to say about the Heywood Hill book, which I haven't read.
Mollie Panter-Downes wrote a lovely book about Swinburne called 'At the Pines', the Pines being his house in Putney. I used to pass it often when I lived in Wimbledon and always had a giggle at the memories it raised. Owing to your corrupting influence, I have just gone to Amazon and ordered a copy of One Fine Day - looking forward to it already.

[elaine]

This is one of my favourite books and I too have the Persephone short stories. I am delighted to see you have the 'old' edition with the wonderful Virago cover. Some months ago I blogged on the Virago covers as I think they are so wonderful, not a patch on the new ones. This is a lovely lovely book