REVIEW: The Farm on the Downs
Feb. 4th, 2013 08:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllThe Farm on the Downs: Gwendoline Courtney Collins 1961
This is the Gwendoline Courtney I knew and loved from Elizabeth and the Garrett Theatre and other books. The last books by her that I’d read were the Denehurst school stories, which I found unsuccessful, but this book plays to Courtney’s strengths, focusing on a family that’s brought together in unusual circumstances. Widowed Ruth Lister has four children: Louise, Paul, Joanna and Sarah, ranging in age from seventeen to ten years old. Having lost her part-time job after a few trying years, she turns to her brother John for help. He recently inherited a farm, where he’s taken his other nephew and adopted ward Hugh to live and invites his sister to come and be their housekeeper, renting out her house and bringing her children along. As it will cut costs and help her with the responsibility – dreamy bookworm Paul, who has had no male role model at home for a while, is something of a worry – she agrees. More adventurous Joanna and curious Sarah are happy to go, but Louise feels a little more trepidation about leaving the city life for the sticks.
When she discovers that the farm might be in beautiful country, but is isolated, lacks electricity and depends on a well for its water, Louise is far from happy and her cousin Hugh doesn’t make a good impression on her (and indeed likewise). But the baby of the family, Sarah, latches on to him – imperious Sarah is certainly the most entertaining of all the characters, although one gets engrossed in all of their development. For Uncle John expects all of them to help out according to their abilities, which might suit Joanna, but Paul is used to taking things easily, unlike, it seems, thorough Hugh. On the other hand, Hugh isn’t used to companions of around his own age and certainly not girls (nor mothers).
How they all learn to rub along, to come to feel at home and become more unified through farm work, school work and coming up with their own entertainment is an absorbing story. The trial period is extended, meaning that the children’s schooling is conducted at the farm by the adults and the Listers get to experience a hard winter on the farm, but they come out the other side.
It’s a book about very human characters, from the siblings’ merciless tearing down of each other, to the comedy arising from their foibles. At the same time, it has a positive point of view. The four eldest children being old enough to be on the cusp of thinking about their own futures - I got quite protective of Joanna, who can keep up intellectually, to a large degree with the older boys who are going to be doctors. It is implied would make a good teacher, although her going to university isn’t ever mentioned, even when money is no longer an issue. I will pretend that it’s because she’s only 15 to 16 and not down to sexism. There’s a nice balance between the serious and the comic, the humdrum and lively events.
This is the Gwendoline Courtney I knew and loved from Elizabeth and the Garrett Theatre and other books. The last books by her that I’d read were the Denehurst school stories, which I found unsuccessful, but this book plays to Courtney’s strengths, focusing on a family that’s brought together in unusual circumstances. Widowed Ruth Lister has four children: Louise, Paul, Joanna and Sarah, ranging in age from seventeen to ten years old. Having lost her part-time job after a few trying years, she turns to her brother John for help. He recently inherited a farm, where he’s taken his other nephew and adopted ward Hugh to live and invites his sister to come and be their housekeeper, renting out her house and bringing her children along. As it will cut costs and help her with the responsibility – dreamy bookworm Paul, who has had no male role model at home for a while, is something of a worry – she agrees. More adventurous Joanna and curious Sarah are happy to go, but Louise feels a little more trepidation about leaving the city life for the sticks.
When she discovers that the farm might be in beautiful country, but is isolated, lacks electricity and depends on a well for its water, Louise is far from happy and her cousin Hugh doesn’t make a good impression on her (and indeed likewise). But the baby of the family, Sarah, latches on to him – imperious Sarah is certainly the most entertaining of all the characters, although one gets engrossed in all of their development. For Uncle John expects all of them to help out according to their abilities, which might suit Joanna, but Paul is used to taking things easily, unlike, it seems, thorough Hugh. On the other hand, Hugh isn’t used to companions of around his own age and certainly not girls (nor mothers).
How they all learn to rub along, to come to feel at home and become more unified through farm work, school work and coming up with their own entertainment is an absorbing story. The trial period is extended, meaning that the children’s schooling is conducted at the farm by the adults and the Listers get to experience a hard winter on the farm, but they come out the other side.
It’s a book about very human characters, from the siblings’ merciless tearing down of each other, to the comedy arising from their foibles. At the same time, it has a positive point of view. The four eldest children being old enough to be on the cusp of thinking about their own futures - I got quite protective of Joanna, who can keep up intellectually, to a large degree with the older boys who are going to be doctors. It is implied would make a good teacher, although her going to university isn’t ever mentioned, even when money is no longer an issue. I will pretend that it’s because she’s only 15 to 16 and not down to sexism. There’s a nice balance between the serious and the comic, the humdrum and lively events.
