Anything but commonplace

     I'd never heard of Frank Baker or his novel Miss Hargreaves: A Fantasy until I read the most glowing recommendation on Simon's site. After what Simon said I had to get hold of a copy, and managed to find a Penguin edition for little or nothing on ebay (the currently in print Tartarus one is extremely expensive!); Abebooks are worth a try, too.

     This is a curious novel but an absolutely delightful one. It is part Ealing comedy and Whitehall farce, part E.M. Delafield's The Diary of a Provincial Lady, with overtones of E.F.Benson's Mapp and Lucia, and a Trollopian setting, and it is the only book I've read which includes descriptions of organ-playing exciting enough to make me want to find the nearest loft and learn to play! ("The Doctor, warmly improvising in B major....enriched the firm prose of the Diapasons with the drama of the Full Swell" - and there's more in quite visceral mode, too long to quote here).

     The story turns on a character 'invented' by two friends on the spur of the moment in order to enliven a tedious encounter with the sexton of an Irish church. Little did they appreciate as they wove a plausible and well-plenished history for 'Miss Hargreaves' that "creative thought creates" and they would soon be encountering the redoubtable lady in real life. What happens then is both very funny and very moving, slightly batty and anything but commonplace (which Miss H. "abominates", by the way, along with "fuss"), and with its picture of life in and around Cornford Cathedral Close - "She was a very large woman, Mrs. Auty, whose great ambition in life was to run Cornford....Canon Auty, it was said, had first met his wife on a mountain in Switzerland, where he found her presiding over an impending avalanche" - it explores big ideas on a small, contained stage. I have a feeling it's going to linger in the mind for quite some time.

Comments

[Nan]

This is just the sort of book I love. I'm going to save your wonderful review. The part about "presiding over an impending avalanche" made me think of Horace Rumpole's wife, Hilda, "she who must be obeyed." Thank you.

[jenclair]

Oh, this sounds delightful! I hope I can find a copy.

[Simon]

Hurray!
So glad you enjoyed it, Karen, though I never really doubted that you would. The novel really is unique, incomparable with anything else I've ever read - and it gets even better on re-reads! Miss H is such a wonderful character, and a hugely memorable one. Wish they'd put the TV version on DVD...

[Etsugawa]

The price of this book must have been pushed up by all of your rave reviews because I couldn't find anything below $27 in the US (for a battered copy) but I went ahead anyway. Maybe Persephone will republish it some day but I don't want to wait for that to happen! Thanks for the recommendation.

[Rebecca]

This sounds right up my street, I have duly noted the title in my place of note, thank you for the recommendation.

[Elaine]

This is one of my favourite books and was introduced to it by Simon as well, for which I am forever grateful. I have the Tartarus press edition but have a feeling that a Penguin is lurking somewhere. if I find it I will offer it up for grabs

[Tui M.]

It sounds a bit Mapp & Lucia-ish, she said hopefully! *adding this one to the groaning TBR pile*