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The Camomile Lawn
Behind the large house, the fragrant camomile lawn stretches down to the Cornish cliffs. Here, in the dizzying heat of August 1939, five cousins have gathered at their aunt's house for their annual ritual of a holiday. For most of them it is the last summer of their youth, with the heady exhilarations and freedoms of lost innocence, as well as the fears of the coming war.
The Camomile Lawn moves from Cornwall to London and back again, over the years, telling the stories of the cousins, their family and their friends, united by shared losses and lovers, by family ties and the absurd conditions imposed by war as their paths cross and recross over the years. Mary Wesley presents an extraordinarily vivid and lively picture of wartime London: the rationing, imaginatively circumvented; the fallen houses; the parties, the new-found comforts of sex, the desperate humour of survival - all of it evoked with warmth, clarity and stunning wit. And through it all, the cousins and their friends try to hold on to the part of themselves that laughed and played dangerous games on that camomile lawn.
The Camomile Lawn moves from Cornwall to London and back again, over the years, telling the stories of the cousins, their family and their friends, united by shared losses and lovers, by family ties and the absurd conditions imposed by war as their paths cross and recross over the years. Mary Wesley presents an extraordinarily vivid and lively picture of wartime London: the rationing, imaginatively circumvented; the fallen houses; the parties, the new-found comforts of sex, the desperate humour of survival - all of it evoked with warmth, clarity and stunning wit. And through it all, the cousins and their friends try to hold on to the part of themselves that laughed and played dangerous games on that camomile lawn.
336 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
About the author
Mary Wesley
41 books159 followersMary Wesley, CBE was an English novelist. She reportedly worked in MI5 during World War II. During her career, she became one of Britain's most successful novelists, selling three million copies of her books, including 10 best-sellers in the last 20 years of her life.
She wrote three children's books, Speaking Terms and The Sixth Seal (both 1969) and Haphazard House (1983), before publishing adult fiction. Since her first adult novel was published only in 1983, when she was 71, she may be regarded as a late bloomer. The publication of Jumping the Queue in 1983 was the beginning of an intensely creative period of Wesley's life. From 1982 to 1991, she wrote and delivered seven novels. While she aged from 70 to 79 she still showed the focus and drive of a young person.
Her best known book, The Camomile Lawn, set on the Roseland Peninsula in Cornwall, was turned into a television series, and is an account of the intertwining lives of three families in rural England during World War II. After The Camomile Lawn (1984) came Harnessing Peacocks (1985 and as TV film in 1992), The Vacillations of Poppy Carew (1986 and filmed in 1995), Not That Sort of Girl (1987), Second Fiddle (1988), A Sensible Life (1990), A Dubious Legacy (1993), An Imaginative Experience (1994) and Part of the Furniture (1997). A book about the West Country with photographer Kim Sayer, Part of the Scenery, was published in 2001. Asked why she had stopped writing fiction at the age of 84, she replied: "If you haven't got anything to say, don't say it.
From Mary Wesley
She wrote three children's books, Speaking Terms and The Sixth Seal (both 1969) and Haphazard House (1983), before publishing adult fiction. Since her first adult novel was published only in 1983, when she was 71, she may be regarded as a late bloomer. The publication of Jumping the Queue in 1983 was the beginning of an intensely creative period of Wesley's life. From 1982 to 1991, she wrote and delivered seven novels. While she aged from 70 to 79 she still showed the focus and drive of a young person.
Her best known book, The Camomile Lawn, set on the Roseland Peninsula in Cornwall, was turned into a television series, and is an account of the intertwining lives of three families in rural England during World War II. After The Camomile Lawn (1984) came Harnessing Peacocks (1985 and as TV film in 1992), The Vacillations of Poppy Carew (1986 and filmed in 1995), Not That Sort of Girl (1987), Second Fiddle (1988), A Sensible Life (1990), A Dubious Legacy (1993), An Imaginative Experience (1994) and Part of the Furniture (1997). A book about the West Country with photographer Kim Sayer, Part of the Scenery, was published in 2001. Asked why she had stopped writing fiction at the age of 84, she replied: "If you haven't got anything to say, don't say it.
From Mary Wesley
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 390 reviews
May 6, 2015
Sub-The Forsyte Saga frippery. This is not a compliment, it doesn't have the depth of characters or development of plot of Galsworthy's epic novel. Sub-Night and Day frippery. This is a compliment, it doesn't have the awful pretension and snobbery that Virginia Woolf could never avoid in her life or her work. So the book is essentially a quite well written saga of some not terribly interesting people who have a lot of sex and a lot of money just like in the two aforementioned novels.
The plot is all tied up about with what these characters did in the war related from the viewpoint of 40 odd years later. It reads so much like the author really wanted it to be bought by the BBC for a costume drama that after reading the book I downloaded the mini-series. It was definitely better than the book as the milk & water characters were developed into more interesting personalities by the actors.
3.5 stars and I can't think who I would recommend the book to.
Read 23 April 2012
The plot is all tied up about with what these characters did in the war related from the viewpoint of 40 odd years later. It reads so much like the author really wanted it to be bought by the BBC for a costume drama that after reading the book I downloaded the mini-series. It was definitely better than the book as the milk & water characters were developed into more interesting personalities by the actors.
3.5 stars and I can't think who I would recommend the book to.
Read 23 April 2012
February 19, 2019
Synopsis: a portrait of an upper class extended family and their circle, immediately before, during, and some 50 years after World War II; portrayed with little pity but a good amount of compassion and dollops of tragedy and humor.
Mary Wesley tells not shows, and that's perfectly fine. She was 72 when she wrote this and she could damn well do as she pleased at that age!
The telling rather than showing is ideal for this story. This is a book about remembrance, about a handful of characters recalling their lives during an incredible period. Recollections come and go; exciting times of the past are relayed in the present tense with little ado, quickly followed by musings in the actual present about those terribly exciting days, by characters older and usually wiser. This back and forth between many different time periods and many different characters made for a dynamic experience that encapsulates and literalizes what this novel is about: memories of a defining time. The book was hard to put down but also such a richly human experience that I wanted to draw out my reading of it.
Many other things to admire:
- The strength of the women and the frankness when it comes to their sexuality. I particularly enjoyed reading about the ménage à trois (with twin airmen!) that starts out on the down-low but lasts so long that the fact that it is a genuine, loving relationship is eventually just accepted by everyone.
- An empathetic but never gooey understanding of how emotion drives so much decision making. And how that's not a bad thing. The sole negatively-depicted character (everyone else is in shades of grey) is defined by his lack of emotion and emotional connections. Fortunately we spend very little time with him.
- The steely exteriors masking those deep wells of emotion; I suppose this is that fabled "stiff upper lip" of the British. It was endearing seeing the many forms this stiff upper lip took. It also made for a particularly moving realization that one character is indeed deeply in love with another, despite everything she says and does.
- For me, one of the best depictions of the homefront during wartime era UK since watching the film Hope and Glory. Here's a great quote from the author describing herself during that war:
- The incredible character of Max: a quirky, intense musician and Jewish refugee and father fearful for his son (trapped in a concentration camp) and married man in an open marriage (before there was even such a term) and a kindly lothario who gets up the skirt of nearly every female character in the book. His is one of the few perspectives that we don't really enter: he is mainly seen through the eyes of everyone else. He is lifeblood personified. And such a scamp!
- A maybe-happy-ending-after-all for two characters in their 50s and 60s that is so minor note and true that it skirts easy sentiment and became the perfect ending for me.
Reading The Camomile Lawn was like slowly going through an old photo album, being able to plunge into a picture and live that scene, then withdrawing out of it, contemplating it. And then turning the page.
Mary Wesley tells not shows, and that's perfectly fine. She was 72 when she wrote this and she could damn well do as she pleased at that age!
The telling rather than showing is ideal for this story. This is a book about remembrance, about a handful of characters recalling their lives during an incredible period. Recollections come and go; exciting times of the past are relayed in the present tense with little ado, quickly followed by musings in the actual present about those terribly exciting days, by characters older and usually wiser. This back and forth between many different time periods and many different characters made for a dynamic experience that encapsulates and literalizes what this novel is about: memories of a defining time. The book was hard to put down but also such a richly human experience that I wanted to draw out my reading of it.
Many other things to admire:
- The strength of the women and the frankness when it comes to their sexuality. I particularly enjoyed reading about the ménage à trois (with twin airmen!) that starts out on the down-low but lasts so long that the fact that it is a genuine, loving relationship is eventually just accepted by everyone.
- An empathetic but never gooey understanding of how emotion drives so much decision making. And how that's not a bad thing. The sole negatively-depicted character (everyone else is in shades of grey) is defined by his lack of emotion and emotional connections. Fortunately we spend very little time with him.
- The steely exteriors masking those deep wells of emotion; I suppose this is that fabled "stiff upper lip" of the British. It was endearing seeing the many forms this stiff upper lip took. It also made for a particularly moving realization that one character is indeed deeply in love with another, despite everything she says and does.
- For me, one of the best depictions of the homefront during wartime era UK since watching the film Hope and Glory. Here's a great quote from the author describing herself during that war:
"too many lovers, too much to drink... I was on my way to become a very nasty person"I'm glad Mary got a hold of herself!
- The incredible character of Max: a quirky, intense musician and Jewish refugee and father fearful for his son (trapped in a concentration camp) and married man in an open marriage (before there was even such a term) and a kindly lothario who gets up the skirt of nearly every female character in the book. His is one of the few perspectives that we don't really enter: he is mainly seen through the eyes of everyone else. He is lifeblood personified. And such a scamp!
- A maybe-happy-ending-after-all for two characters in their 50s and 60s that is so minor note and true that it skirts easy sentiment and became the perfect ending for me.
Reading The Camomile Lawn was like slowly going through an old photo album, being able to plunge into a picture and live that scene, then withdrawing out of it, contemplating it. And then turning the page.
November 29, 2015
My appreciation of The Camomile Lawn was fed by three sources; one being the knowledge that this novel was written when Wesley was 72 and it was only her second novel for adults. The second was the novel's authentic immediacy; Wesley does not bother with many descriptive passages and she very quickly sheds the constraints of who said what. Thirdly, in 1984 at 72, Wesley has an amazingly sprite open-mindedness; an astonishingly frank outlook about sex. You might easily get the idea she may be speaking from first-hand knowledge. I have heard the war made people react in ways they might normally not act; whatever the reason, the frankness is refreshing.
Set in Cornwall just prior to WWII, London in 1939, and latterly in late 1970s, it is the story of a group of cousins, their parents, uncles and aunts and also two Jewish refugees. Their lives, how they cope and react to the effects of the war; their lives and their loves make for an eye-opening, interesting and entertaining read.
This book is second in a sequence of novels; the first being Jumping the Queue, all written in Wesley's later years. Having enjoyed The Camomile Lawn so much, I plan to now read all her novels. I am so glad that a feature of Literary History in one of my GR groups introduced me to Mary Wesley. She is, ever so much, a bit of a feisty dame! 4★
P.S. I never knew you could grow a camomile lawn!
October 10, 2013
Here is a novel which is of a very particular type, it’s almost (but not) a self-parody of the clipped we-don’t-do-emotion (well, we do, but we don’t go on about it) British School of No Nonsense. It’s about a family of cousins and others surviving or not through World War Two. They’re all fairly posh. They know how to tell a good claret from a bad one. They’re the lower level of the upper crust.
The women in the story demonstrate in hectic abandon one of the untrumpeted taboos of history, that sometimes a bloody big war gives you a chance to have a jolly good time. If you don’t get maimed or killed. Cast off the shackles, drink, shag and be merry for tomorrow Hitler might perforate the small of your back with a doodlebug, and then where will you be, up on a cloud with a bloody old harp repining for lost shags.
“Oh lost shags, wherefore art thou?” (That's Shakespeare, Measure for Measure I think. Look it up.)
So in this book the dialogue goes something like
“You know I really want to do it with you Calypso, a chap needs his comforts.”
“Oh all right, Oliver. We can do it this afternoon. No, wait, I forgot – I am the wife of the Member of Parliament for Scruttock East and as such I must attend a function for the new ambassador from the Empire of Trebizond. What about later orn?”
“Oh Calypso what bad luck. I have to go to somewhere secret tonight.”
“Oh well next time will do.”
“Okay hold you to that.”
“Bye.”
“Bye.”
Calypso is the kind of gal who is so stunning she can just go “Next… (snaps fingers)… next (snaps fingers)… next (lifts left eyebrow having become bored with snapping fingers)” and all the men loins ablaze and their eager countenances and their eyes like Catherine wheels.
Next… next… next… how long before that gets really old? I’m thinking…
never!
The women in the story demonstrate in hectic abandon one of the untrumpeted taboos of history, that sometimes a bloody big war gives you a chance to have a jolly good time. If you don’t get maimed or killed. Cast off the shackles, drink, shag and be merry for tomorrow Hitler might perforate the small of your back with a doodlebug, and then where will you be, up on a cloud with a bloody old harp repining for lost shags.
“Oh lost shags, wherefore art thou?” (That's Shakespeare, Measure for Measure I think. Look it up.)
So in this book the dialogue goes something like
“You know I really want to do it with you Calypso, a chap needs his comforts.”
“Oh all right, Oliver. We can do it this afternoon. No, wait, I forgot – I am the wife of the Member of Parliament for Scruttock East and as such I must attend a function for the new ambassador from the Empire of Trebizond. What about later orn?”
“Oh Calypso what bad luck. I have to go to somewhere secret tonight.”
“Oh well next time will do.”
“Okay hold you to that.”
“Bye.”
“Bye.”
Calypso is the kind of gal who is so stunning she can just go “Next… (snaps fingers)… next (snaps fingers)… next (lifts left eyebrow having become bored with snapping fingers)” and all the men loins ablaze and their eager countenances and their eyes like Catherine wheels.
Next… next… next… how long before that gets really old? I’m thinking…
never!
February 11, 2022
So this book was written in 1984, but what i mostly remember is the (British TV) Channel 4 series during the early 90s, which was one of those series that everyone was watching. If you weren’t watching you weren’t cool ha ha
So this book is all about a bunch of cousins who gather together at their Aunt’s large house in Cornwall, with yes, a Camomile Lawn, every Summer for their annual Holiday. As they leave their youth behind, and with what will be the 2nd World War approaching, this story focusses on their lives as the next few years pass and what affects their lives as they spend time in London, and sporadically return to their youth in Cornwall; the rationing, the derelict bombed houses, the air raids and the friendships and loves they find.
This was an audiobook listen that I normally wouldn’t have considered. It was only because my wife had started listening to it, that as we were working on the house together I decided to listen along. It turned out to be a good decision as the narration by Carole Boyd is fantastic.
A fun renovation listen.
So this book is all about a bunch of cousins who gather together at their Aunt’s large house in Cornwall, with yes, a Camomile Lawn, every Summer for their annual Holiday. As they leave their youth behind, and with what will be the 2nd World War approaching, this story focusses on their lives as the next few years pass and what affects their lives as they spend time in London, and sporadically return to their youth in Cornwall; the rationing, the derelict bombed houses, the air raids and the friendships and loves they find.
This was an audiobook listen that I normally wouldn’t have considered. It was only because my wife had started listening to it, that as we were working on the house together I decided to listen along. It turned out to be a good decision as the narration by Carole Boyd is fantastic.
A fun renovation listen.
August 8, 2012
I'm not sure what the point of this book really was...the story of an extended family set in WWII London and Cornwall. The book jumps back and forth between the war experiences and the future when most of the characters are heading to a funeral and reminiscing about those times. These people need to expand their social circle because they all just sleep with each other throughout the book. Cousins with cousins, aunts & uncles with nephews & nieces, a few neighbors get into the mix and there are multiple dirty-old-men types who are regularly pawing young girls or flashing. Yet, Wesley doesn't actually go into a lot of detail about any of this. They all just sort of talk about it in a very matter of fact way as if these were the usual wartime experiences. Is camomile an afrodisiac? Every relationship in the book seems to center around sex - either having it or wanting it but not having it or having had it, deciding not to have it again. I was pretty bored by the end and eager to get through the funeral and get the hell off the camomile lawn.
April 4, 2013
For some time now I do carework for the elderly in the UK. People in their late 80's or even 90's, whose young years play out on the pages of this book. Often they relate to me their war-time experiences, in fact it seems, that - very understandibly - those years left the deepest marks on their lives. It struck me as strange, or weird even, that some of them spoke with quite some relish about the war years (just like Polly does in the novel). Reading this book (haven't finished yet) helps me to understand them on a deeper level. Some reviewers complain here, that the characters are rather flat and mono-dimensional. Strangely, to me this rather well expresses their real complexity. Older generations British people can appear rather one sided, but if you spend time with them, you can sense the depth of - probably not conscious or not expressed - layers of their personalities. Very often you can just do guess work, or if you operate on a more emotional/intuitive level, sense them somehow. The way they talk, their gestures, their vibes when they recall their past, or just the way they exist today gives a lot or clues.
There is one thing that I did definitely sense with my clients as well as with the characters moving about on the pages of this book: there is a profound sense of perplexity, a very curious mixture of shame and pleasure. Just imagine the state of mind at the time of the most terrible war of modern Europe: you are in the middle of it, people are dying left, right and centre, including your beloved ones, yet you can't help feeling that this is the time of your life... There is party after party, sex is oozing from the walls together with death, if you are a young woman for instance, you are suddenly out of the confines of your probably strict family and/or school, and from a girl waiting to be married, you fast as lightening evolve into someone with an often vitally important role for your country in war.A client or mine, who comes from a rather poor family, became one of the very few first women to operate the radars for the RAF. She was in her late teens, just out of a boarding school (where she won a grant and probably mostly learnt home economics, etc.) and all of a sudden she was operating radars, then very soon teaching male officers, decades her seniors, the science of radar detection. On the other hand, she recalls her feelings of being instrumental in killing people. One moment her face lights up with thrill, the other moment in terror and there is no way to separate these feelings, really, in the complexity of the experience. And of course this is 50+ years later. I can very well imagine that in those times this all was just too much to deal with, to intricate to go into detail, so you just focused on surviving in a raw and seemingly unsophisticated manner. The book reads very realistic to me on the basis of my experience with member of the war generation.
There is one thing that I did definitely sense with my clients as well as with the characters moving about on the pages of this book: there is a profound sense of perplexity, a very curious mixture of shame and pleasure. Just imagine the state of mind at the time of the most terrible war of modern Europe: you are in the middle of it, people are dying left, right and centre, including your beloved ones, yet you can't help feeling that this is the time of your life... There is party after party, sex is oozing from the walls together with death, if you are a young woman for instance, you are suddenly out of the confines of your probably strict family and/or school, and from a girl waiting to be married, you fast as lightening evolve into someone with an often vitally important role for your country in war.A client or mine, who comes from a rather poor family, became one of the very few first women to operate the radars for the RAF. She was in her late teens, just out of a boarding school (where she won a grant and probably mostly learnt home economics, etc.) and all of a sudden she was operating radars, then very soon teaching male officers, decades her seniors, the science of radar detection. On the other hand, she recalls her feelings of being instrumental in killing people. One moment her face lights up with thrill, the other moment in terror and there is no way to separate these feelings, really, in the complexity of the experience. And of course this is 50+ years later. I can very well imagine that in those times this all was just too much to deal with, to intricate to go into detail, so you just focused on surviving in a raw and seemingly unsophisticated manner. The book reads very realistic to me on the basis of my experience with member of the war generation.
February 6, 2014
I'd heard good things about this book and duly sought it out like a sort of bibliophilic blood hound. When I say I'd heard good things I didn't actually know anything about it; the title and the inclusion of the word Camomile immediately planted seeds of ideas including tameness, anodine blandness and a sort of natural flavour which isn't necessarily to everyone's taste.
Bam! Wrong!
This book is World War II with sexy edges and a sexual liberation that people rightly or wrongly do not ever associate with a time which was so fraught with danger, deprivation and uncertainty. I'm not saying that London during the Blitz was the place where the entire populace took advantage of all those black-out curtains and darkened corners for a quick knee trembler with a squaddie they'd picked up on the streets right before the siren sounded. Just that things were not quite so buttoned up, or buttoned down as one might have initially been led to believe.
The tale of beautiful Calypso, shy orphaned Sophy, Oliver, Polly and Walter, bosom teenage buddies and later kissing cousins spans 50 years from 1939 to 1989. Separated after the war, they are reunited at the funeral of a Max, the famous musician and Jewish refugee who arrived along with much controversy and his wife in Cornwall during that last heady summer of the Camomile Lawn - the last summer before the theatre of war fractured the cousins quite privileged upper middle class existence . As it turns out Max was a bit of a lothario and a dab hand at playing the ladies as well, although the elder Max and Uncle Richard are both dangerously close to creepy old man territory... actually what am I saying, they both fully breach that territory and make few excuses.
The convoluted relationships in this long spun-out coming of age tale are complex, comedic and well written and I'll never think about my Nana and Grandpa during the war years in the same way again (FYI my mother was conceived in the dying days of WWII - nuff said).
This book is what happened to Enid Blyton's Famous Five when they got older and got laid. I highly recommend it.
Bam! Wrong!
This book is World War II with sexy edges and a sexual liberation that people rightly or wrongly do not ever associate with a time which was so fraught with danger, deprivation and uncertainty. I'm not saying that London during the Blitz was the place where the entire populace took advantage of all those black-out curtains and darkened corners for a quick knee trembler with a squaddie they'd picked up on the streets right before the siren sounded. Just that things were not quite so buttoned up, or buttoned down as one might have initially been led to believe.
The tale of beautiful Calypso, shy orphaned Sophy, Oliver, Polly and Walter, bosom teenage buddies and later kissing cousins spans 50 years from 1939 to 1989. Separated after the war, they are reunited at the funeral of a Max, the famous musician and Jewish refugee who arrived along with much controversy and his wife in Cornwall during that last heady summer of the Camomile Lawn - the last summer before the theatre of war fractured the cousins quite privileged upper middle class existence . As it turns out Max was a bit of a lothario and a dab hand at playing the ladies as well, although the elder Max and Uncle Richard are both dangerously close to creepy old man territory... actually what am I saying, they both fully breach that territory and make few excuses.
The convoluted relationships in this long spun-out coming of age tale are complex, comedic and well written and I'll never think about my Nana and Grandpa during the war years in the same way again (FYI my mother was conceived in the dying days of WWII - nuff said).
This book is what happened to Enid Blyton's Famous Five when they got older and got laid. I highly recommend it.
October 26, 2019
In not sure what to say about this one. It's been on my list for a while and I found a copy at a used book sale. I've heard good things about Mary Wesley, and how can I not be interested in an author who started writing for adults at the age of 72?
The story starts in 1939 at an Uncle's house in Cornwall, where 5 cousins meet for a month each summer on holiday. Of course, the War begins, and the next 6 years sees the cousins and various other friends and relatives hopping in and out of each other's lives, and each other's beds. The chapters move back and forth in time, and viewpoint. The plot was at times interesting, but I lost patience several times along the way, not really caring enough about any of the characters to move my emotions. So this book was not wildly successful for me, but the writing was good enough that I may give another of her books a try in the future.
The story starts in 1939 at an Uncle's house in Cornwall, where 5 cousins meet for a month each summer on holiday. Of course, the War begins, and the next 6 years sees the cousins and various other friends and relatives hopping in and out of each other's lives, and each other's beds. The chapters move back and forth in time, and viewpoint. The plot was at times interesting, but I lost patience several times along the way, not really caring enough about any of the characters to move my emotions. So this book was not wildly successful for me, but the writing was good enough that I may give another of her books a try in the future.
November 22, 2007
One of my favorites. I loved it so much I named two of my children after characters in this book.
Want to read
August 14, 2009Why did I bother to buy this book yesterday whose title rang a very faint bell and whose author rang absolutely none??!!??
Because I read this when I opened the cover:
The Camomile Lawn
Mary Wesley was born as Mary Farmar in 1912
to an upperclass family and grew up a rebel
who believed that she was her mother's least
favourite child.Like many girls of her back
ground, she married for escape and her first
marriage, to Lord Swinfen, was brief.In 1944
she met Eric Siepmann,an unsuccessful writer
whom she adored.Their relationship,which was
mercurial and bohemian,lasted until his death.
Having taken the pen name Wesley from her
family name of Wellesley she published her
first novel when she was seventy years old and
went on to write a subsequent nine dazzling
bestsellers, including The Camomile Lawn.She
was awarded the CBE in the 1995 New Years
Honours List and died in 2002.
Well, wouldn't have YOU??
But what has a person's life to do with what they write?
Recently it was said NOTHING. I'd say EVERYTHING!!
Because I read this when I opened the cover:
The Camomile Lawn
Mary Wesley was born as Mary Farmar in 1912
to an upperclass family and grew up a rebel
who believed that she was her mother's least
favourite child.Like many girls of her back
ground, she married for escape and her first
marriage, to Lord Swinfen, was brief.In 1944
she met Eric Siepmann,an unsuccessful writer
whom she adored.Their relationship,which was
mercurial and bohemian,lasted until his death.
Having taken the pen name Wesley from her
family name of Wellesley she published her
first novel when she was seventy years old and
went on to write a subsequent nine dazzling
bestsellers, including The Camomile Lawn.She
was awarded the CBE in the 1995 New Years
Honours List and died in 2002.
Well, wouldn't have YOU??
But what has a person's life to do with what they write?
Recently it was said NOTHING. I'd say EVERYTHING!!
April 22, 2022
I absolutely love this book, I first read it aged 13 (30 years ago) after my Mother borrowed it from the library and I've read it many times since.
The whole inclusion of sex in the book was back then exciting and nerve wracking but now it seems like it was love that all the characters were looking for all along and sex was just a tool to try and find it.
Expertly written, a wonderful family saga that's easy to digest. And I found myself devouring the book as eagerly as I did 30 years ago.
The whole inclusion of sex in the book was back then exciting and nerve wracking but now it seems like it was love that all the characters were looking for all along and sex was just a tool to try and find it.
Expertly written, a wonderful family saga that's easy to digest. And I found myself devouring the book as eagerly as I did 30 years ago.
November 9, 2013
The Camomile Lawn by Mary Wesley is a provocative novel that tells the story of five cousins during their annual holiday in a house by the sea. It is the summer of 1939, the last the cousins will share together as the world is on the edge of war. Each of the male couins will be called to duty, hence war and bombings carve their way into the stories. We first meet Aunt Helena and Uncle Richard before all the cousins arrive on the train from London, except Sophy (my favorite character). Sophy lives with her aunt and uncle, trying to be un-obtrusive as Aunt Helen doesn't care much for her, feeling her to be a burden. Upon her perch in the tree above the garden Sophy gives us a birds-eye view of her Aunt Helen relaxing in her chair, as Uncle Richard calls for tea. The author has a delicate hand in revealing her characters through their interactions rather than thrusting descriptions upon the reader. Aunt Helen often comes across as snobbish and cold, particularly in her disdain for her husband's complaints about his missing leg.
With the arrival of Oliver, Calypso, Walter and Polly we learn of the complicated attraction between Oliver and the gorgeous Calypso, and the tender bond that Sophy has with the much older Oliver. Sophy is the lonely cousin whose age distances her from the more mature group, and her hunger isto belong drives her story. Sophy's naivete is often exposed as she listens to the conversations of a sexual nature between her cousins. There is also an incident having to do with a game the cousins call The Terror Run upon the cliffs that Sophy is finally permitted to participate in but becomes her misfortune when something happens to traumatize her.
Other characters come into play in the novel, particularly the Jewish refugees. In the story, the rectors wife doesn't believe Hitler is doing such horrible things to the Jews. Such horrors unimaginable to someone with a kind heart. It is a true account of the thinking of the times, an innocence to horrors. The rector also has twin sons that have always been a part of the group of cousins.
There was a comfortable life for the upper middle class that the war changed. Women didn't have to do things for themselves as they had maids, etc. It was also before children and women were bombarded with sexual images, and such frank talk wasn't always understood by innocent ears. We see this come into play quite a bit, not to say some of the characters aren't randy, just that a woman or a child wasn't as knowledgeable with the terms nor the act itself. It also plays strange because there is so much sex between this cast of characters, everyone using there sexuality for different purposes.
Because Wesley was a more 'mature' writer in her 70's, the characters in their old age are far more authentic than most writer's can achieve in creating. Perspective that comes in one's declining years is vital to The Camomile Lawn, the rehashing of one's youthful time of life gives much more insight into the how and whys of the choices some of the characters made. I enjoyed the novel to the very end, and while this is a quiet novel, there is so very much going on.
The character's are all charming and infuriating, and the author doesn't push any opinions on the reader. It is an account of a certain period of time, a true picture of what people felt and thought, whether it was prejudiced or not. Characters without the thought filter that modern people apply to their comments is vital to this authentic depiction. Wonderful!
With the arrival of Oliver, Calypso, Walter and Polly we learn of the complicated attraction between Oliver and the gorgeous Calypso, and the tender bond that Sophy has with the much older Oliver. Sophy is the lonely cousin whose age distances her from the more mature group, and her hunger isto belong drives her story. Sophy's naivete is often exposed as she listens to the conversations of a sexual nature between her cousins. There is also an incident having to do with a game the cousins call The Terror Run upon the cliffs that Sophy is finally permitted to participate in but becomes her misfortune when something happens to traumatize her.
Other characters come into play in the novel, particularly the Jewish refugees. In the story, the rectors wife doesn't believe Hitler is doing such horrible things to the Jews. Such horrors unimaginable to someone with a kind heart. It is a true account of the thinking of the times, an innocence to horrors. The rector also has twin sons that have always been a part of the group of cousins.
There was a comfortable life for the upper middle class that the war changed. Women didn't have to do things for themselves as they had maids, etc. It was also before children and women were bombarded with sexual images, and such frank talk wasn't always understood by innocent ears. We see this come into play quite a bit, not to say some of the characters aren't randy, just that a woman or a child wasn't as knowledgeable with the terms nor the act itself. It also plays strange because there is so much sex between this cast of characters, everyone using there sexuality for different purposes.
Because Wesley was a more 'mature' writer in her 70's, the characters in their old age are far more authentic than most writer's can achieve in creating. Perspective that comes in one's declining years is vital to The Camomile Lawn, the rehashing of one's youthful time of life gives much more insight into the how and whys of the choices some of the characters made. I enjoyed the novel to the very end, and while this is a quiet novel, there is so very much going on.
The character's are all charming and infuriating, and the author doesn't push any opinions on the reader. It is an account of a certain period of time, a true picture of what people felt and thought, whether it was prejudiced or not. Characters without the thought filter that modern people apply to their comments is vital to this authentic depiction. Wonderful!
January 6, 2014
This is a wartime story, largely set in Cornwall and London during the days immediately before WWII and the following six years, as we watch different generations deal with going to war, sending loved ones off, managing with privation and bombardment and lives turned up side down as well as changing behavioral codes. War changed lives in so many ways.
Along side that story is the more modern one of survivors of the earlier time, all on their way to a funeral of one of their own. Now the former "younger" generation can regale their offspring with tales of the war years and youthful indiscretions, bravery and silliness.
At times the timeline was a bit porous for me when reading but then I caught quickly back on to the thread of events. I think that is not at all unusual given that this novel is partially occurring during the tumult of war when no one knows what is happening much of the time and partially reminiscence which is itself out of time. There is love, lust, bravery, misunderstanding aplenty, hatred, gentleness, and, in the end, a very good story.
I received an e-copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Along side that story is the more modern one of survivors of the earlier time, all on their way to a funeral of one of their own. Now the former "younger" generation can regale their offspring with tales of the war years and youthful indiscretions, bravery and silliness.
At times the timeline was a bit porous for me when reading but then I caught quickly back on to the thread of events. I think that is not at all unusual given that this novel is partially occurring during the tumult of war when no one knows what is happening much of the time and partially reminiscence which is itself out of time. There is love, lust, bravery, misunderstanding aplenty, hatred, gentleness, and, in the end, a very good story.
I received an e-copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
August 26, 2018
DNF at 27%
Unpleasant people being unpleasant.
Disliked the writing style immensely.
Unable to discern a plot.
That's it in a nutshell. Life is too short to read books you don't enjoy.
Unpleasant people being unpleasant.
Disliked the writing style immensely.
Unable to discern a plot.
That's it in a nutshell. Life is too short to read books you don't enjoy.
September 5, 2019
This novel starts in 1935, with a group of five cousins, visiting the house of their Aunt Helena and Uncle Richard, for a holiday by the sea. There is the beautiful Calypso, siblings Walter and Polly, the brooding Oliver and young, unwanted Sophy. Add to the mix the Rector’s twin sons, David and Paul and their guests, Max and Monika, married refugees, and you have the main cast of the novel.
Although this begins before the war, most of the book takes place during the war and revolves around these characters, whose alliances, affairs and romances change, but whose bonds remain strong – if sometimes stretched. Although the men desire Calypso, she is determined to marry money. Polly is doing secret war work, the men fight and face capture or death. There are secrets, sacrifice and, oh, lots of sex… Just about everyone spends their time either sleeping, or wanting to sleep, with each other.
I have only read two novels by Mary Wesley, but her work is so original, that I would love to read more. She was only published when she was fairly old and her writing has that rich seam of experience which only comes with age.
Although this begins before the war, most of the book takes place during the war and revolves around these characters, whose alliances, affairs and romances change, but whose bonds remain strong – if sometimes stretched. Although the men desire Calypso, she is determined to marry money. Polly is doing secret war work, the men fight and face capture or death. There are secrets, sacrifice and, oh, lots of sex… Just about everyone spends their time either sleeping, or wanting to sleep, with each other.
I have only read two novels by Mary Wesley, but her work is so original, that I would love to read more. She was only published when she was fairly old and her writing has that rich seam of experience which only comes with age.
January 3, 2016
I discovered this book while researching camomile, the herb. It seemed to be completely in my wheelhouse of 'lost innocence Anglophilia' – somewhere between
Brideshead Revisited
,
Atonement
and
Testament of Youth
in following a group of young people before and through war and seeing how it affects them, and in contrasting the golden, privileged innocence of the pre-war period with the disillusionment of worldly adulthood.
I loved it! This isn't the first thing I've read to assert that people in wartime or other crisis situations basically go crazy partying and fucking because they could be dead any day, but it's one of the most vivid. The characters leapt off the page with vivid humanity – even ostensibly unsympathetic characters such as beautiful, vain Calypso and selfish Helena. Polly was my favourite character.
There's such drama in the sensuality of contingent scenarios – which YA fiction instinctively gets. Not only is it pleasurable to read about the emotional highs and lows of people in wartime, but these emotions also offer us the opportunity for self-reflection. I had to wonder how I would behave if total war were now declared, and everyone I knew were caught in the upheaval of it all. I'm closer to Helena's age than the other young characters – would I seize hedonism with both hands, as she does?
However, some characters were more enigmatic than others. For instance, we never get much of a sense of Oliver, who lusts after Calypso in a pretty ugly, entitled way and doesn't really do much to justify the love that Sophy nurtures for him her entire life. And we never really enter the inner world of the Floyer twins – although I suppose it's important for the plot that they basically seem like a unit, rather than two separate people with separate concerns.
One thing I really admired is the sly humour that creeps in, and which is mainly drawn from an observation of human nature at its most base. Wesley is not afraid to make her characters look ridiculous, and she lightly sketches situational irony. Like her characters, she's also quite matter-of-fact regarding sexual behaviour, including promiscuity, paedophilia and polyamory, which could have been treated either pruriently or prudishly. For me, this leavened what could otherwise have been a pompous and overly sentimental story (cf. Atonement).
I was terribly moved by the segments of the book that focus on the older characters, and see them through the eyes of the younger generation. And I admired the skill with which Wesley interweaves these 1980s segments in with the 1940s segments, doling out just enough reminiscence and reflection at a time to inform each. There is a real sense of narrative momentum leading up to the funeral to which all the characters are travelling.
Every glamorous, beautiful youngster is going to become a dumpy, crotchety elder with health problems – yet of course we always still feel the same inside. In many ways this is an anti-nostalgic book because it makes looking back longingly at the past just seem sad and futile. We lose everything and everyone, in the end.
I loved it! This isn't the first thing I've read to assert that people in wartime or other crisis situations basically go crazy partying and fucking because they could be dead any day, but it's one of the most vivid. The characters leapt off the page with vivid humanity – even ostensibly unsympathetic characters such as beautiful, vain Calypso and selfish Helena. Polly was my favourite character.
There's such drama in the sensuality of contingent scenarios – which YA fiction instinctively gets. Not only is it pleasurable to read about the emotional highs and lows of people in wartime, but these emotions also offer us the opportunity for self-reflection. I had to wonder how I would behave if total war were now declared, and everyone I knew were caught in the upheaval of it all. I'm closer to Helena's age than the other young characters – would I seize hedonism with both hands, as she does?
However, some characters were more enigmatic than others. For instance, we never get much of a sense of Oliver, who lusts after Calypso in a pretty ugly, entitled way and doesn't really do much to justify the love that Sophy nurtures for him her entire life. And we never really enter the inner world of the Floyer twins – although I suppose it's important for the plot that they basically seem like a unit, rather than two separate people with separate concerns.
One thing I really admired is the sly humour that creeps in, and which is mainly drawn from an observation of human nature at its most base. Wesley is not afraid to make her characters look ridiculous, and she lightly sketches situational irony. Like her characters, she's also quite matter-of-fact regarding sexual behaviour, including promiscuity, paedophilia and polyamory, which could have been treated either pruriently or prudishly. For me, this leavened what could otherwise have been a pompous and overly sentimental story (cf. Atonement).
I was terribly moved by the segments of the book that focus on the older characters, and see them through the eyes of the younger generation. And I admired the skill with which Wesley interweaves these 1980s segments in with the 1940s segments, doling out just enough reminiscence and reflection at a time to inform each. There is a real sense of narrative momentum leading up to the funeral to which all the characters are travelling.
Every glamorous, beautiful youngster is going to become a dumpy, crotchety elder with health problems – yet of course we always still feel the same inside. In many ways this is an anti-nostalgic book because it makes looking back longingly at the past just seem sad and futile. We lose everything and everyone, in the end.
May 20, 2020
Reviewed for Books and livres
This week-end, I watched the mini-series The camomile lawn with, among others, Toby Stephens (whom I have a soft spot for), Tara Fitzgerald, Jennifer Ehle (platinum blonde, I didn't recognize her at first !). Time period, very good cast, I enjoyed watching it but wasn't crazy about it. However, I researched the book it was inspired from and found out that it's a modern classic in Great Britain, written by a Lady who was in her old age, so I managed to get the book for free and read it quickly enough while watching the show.
It's not a great book. I can see why many people liked it (life during the war, 3mns phone calls, train travels, rations, pain but also more freedom) however... everybody kept having sex with almost everyone ! (Max practically sleeps with every woman in the novel). I'm not a prude, far from it - see my shelves on GR, but there are some things I didn't expect to see there. I was more surprised than shocked, yet having this older man liking to put his hands up the skirts of much younger girls, the general attitude toward little girls bothered me. The old perv attracted to younger girls is presented as a harmless man, and yes, I know guys like him exist, but he made me feel uneasy given the way he's portrayed. Especially when there's another man at the beginning of the novel that keeps flashing a little girl. See ?
Apart from that, it's a recollection of memories from different characters viewpoints. So there is a lot of telling, not much showing, practically zero psychological depth. It's a novel that helps pass time, but I'm quite certain that there are much better books out there about the same time period.
I was about to give it 3 stars when I closed it, yet thinking back about those older men and those girls made me lower it down to 2 stars. I know other people loved this book according to Goodreads, but honestly it's not the better piece of writing in the world !
This week-end, I watched the mini-series The camomile lawn with, among others, Toby Stephens (whom I have a soft spot for), Tara Fitzgerald, Jennifer Ehle (platinum blonde, I didn't recognize her at first !). Time period, very good cast, I enjoyed watching it but wasn't crazy about it. However, I researched the book it was inspired from and found out that it's a modern classic in Great Britain, written by a Lady who was in her old age, so I managed to get the book for free and read it quickly enough while watching the show.
It's not a great book. I can see why many people liked it (life during the war, 3mns phone calls, train travels, rations, pain but also more freedom) however... everybody kept having sex with almost everyone ! (Max practically sleeps with every woman in the novel). I'm not a prude, far from it - see my shelves on GR, but there are some things I didn't expect to see there. I was more surprised than shocked, yet having this older man liking to put his hands up the skirts of much younger girls, the general attitude toward little girls bothered me. The old perv attracted to younger girls is presented as a harmless man, and yes, I know guys like him exist, but he made me feel uneasy given the way he's portrayed. Especially when there's another man at the beginning of the novel that keeps flashing a little girl. See ?
Apart from that, it's a recollection of memories from different characters viewpoints. So there is a lot of telling, not much showing, practically zero psychological depth. It's a novel that helps pass time, but I'm quite certain that there are much better books out there about the same time period.
I was about to give it 3 stars when I closed it, yet thinking back about those older men and those girls made me lower it down to 2 stars. I know other people loved this book according to Goodreads, but honestly it's not the better piece of writing in the world !
May 21, 2019
I heard an abridgement of this on BBC Radio 4 and really enjoyed it, so I asked my library to find me a copy.
This is a really entertaining story of an extended family during WW II. (It has been made into a TV series series in Britain and I can totally see Toby Jones as Oliver!) At times it is hard to remember who was related to who. But I just ate it up. There's a Jewish refugee who sleeps with practically any woman (and his wife is okay with that). There are WW I veterans who were supporting Hitler until they discovered what a wacko he was. There is also very non-standard relationships: twins sleeping with same woman, homsexuality, etc.
I loved the style and I loved the characters. I will definitely look for more books by this author.
This is a really entertaining story of an extended family during WW II. (It has been made into a TV series series in Britain and I can totally see Toby Jones as Oliver!) At times it is hard to remember who was related to who. But I just ate it up. There's a Jewish refugee who sleeps with practically any woman (and his wife is okay with that). There are WW I veterans who were supporting Hitler until they discovered what a wacko he was. There is also very non-standard relationships: twins sleeping with same woman, homsexuality, etc.
I loved the style and I loved the characters. I will definitely look for more books by this author.
May 20, 2015
SO MANY COUSINS FUCKING. SO MANY!
May 23, 2020
I am really struggling with how to rate this. Let me explain.
This is the first book I have read where the thought occurred to me that it ought to come with a trigger warning. I'm not really the type that assigns trigger warnings to my books. Could be due to genre selection, it doesn't occur to me, or generally I don't feel knowledgeable enough to assign a warning for someone else, subjectively. However. There are some themes in this book that took me by surprise and I would hate for someone who may have experienced molestation to read this without warning. Especially, in light of how the characters treat repeated molestation. Also, there are vague references to spousal abuse and one overt instance where the husband slaps the wife, unexpectedly.
I heard about this on IG. I loved the pretty cover and photo placement. The bookstagrammer gave the impression it was about an idyllic summer before the war with cousins. THEY DIDN'T READ THE BOOK. (I'm quite put out by this betrayal.) It's absolutely not an idyllic summer and the book covers the entire war years and after as the characters make their way to the funeral of one of their own.
Themes you should know about: attempted suicide, child molestation, spousal abuse, infidelity (if that bothers you in a book), war themes, sexual promiscuity, underage sex, demeaning comments towards women. It's clearly not about one last summer at the house with the camomile lawn as the blurb in the back of the book promises.
Another point of contention: Sophy is spelled with a "y" throughout the text. Yet in the blurb on the back her name is spelled "Sophie". It seems rather big miss on proofreading for error.
SPOILERS BELOW:
I gave it three stars because it was well written. Though some of the themes made me uncomfortable, I was also drawn into the story hoping to find some redemptive qualities in the characters. Sex is a major theme. It starts out with the older cousin, Oliver, nineteen and freshly returned from the Spanish Civil War, being picked up from the train station by his cousin, Calypso. He promptly asks her if he can "f*ck her". She calmly demurs stating she plans on marrying for money and needs to remain a virgin. That really set the tone for the rest of the book. References to erections, a ten year old without knickers on and her bare bum, a flasher, Oliver's sexual desperation to sleep with his cousin, Uncle Richard repeatedly molesting young girls, a composer sleeping with a 16 year old because he was distraught, same composer having an affair with Helena calling her "phlegm" as his term of endearment... etc. I think the composer literally sleeps with every female character in the book. But the age of 16 is his threshold. Just messed up and so casually mentioned without any real stance on the wrongness of what was going on.
Here is what made me irate:
Uncle Richard repeatedly molesting young girls. It comes out that he sticks his hands up their skirts (maybe more but it isn't talked about). He confesses this to Calypso when she is in her twenties and had already experienced his attention when younger. He knows the wrongness but can't help himself. She sweeps it under the rug and then asks him to be her baby's godfather. (WTF.) Later in the book, she and Sophy compare notes and realize he did it to both of them. They then hurry to catch up to him as he's with two younger girls walking ahead of them. Then his wife mentions she knows he does this and was hoping his mistress, Monika, had cured him of it. Richard just mentions that Monika offered to shave herself bare for him. Just the casual acceptance of it is horrifying. I know this was during a time period where it wasn't talked about or hidden. But that doesn't make it right nor acceptable. And clearly Sophy has suffered psychologically from the abuse.
Hector abusing Calypso. Several vague references to his violence towards her when he drinks. And he also slaps her across the face suddenly in a conversation where she was disagreeing with him. She accepts it as his due. Other characters know about it, yet nothing is done or said.
It's a book full of intensely flawed characters with no redemptive qualities. I can't recommend it. I didn't get much out of it and didn't find it to be an enjoyable read.
This is the first book I have read where the thought occurred to me that it ought to come with a trigger warning. I'm not really the type that assigns trigger warnings to my books. Could be due to genre selection, it doesn't occur to me, or generally I don't feel knowledgeable enough to assign a warning for someone else, subjectively. However. There are some themes in this book that took me by surprise and I would hate for someone who may have experienced molestation to read this without warning. Especially, in light of how the characters treat repeated molestation. Also, there are vague references to spousal abuse and one overt instance where the husband slaps the wife, unexpectedly.
I heard about this on IG. I loved the pretty cover and photo placement. The bookstagrammer gave the impression it was about an idyllic summer before the war with cousins. THEY DIDN'T READ THE BOOK. (I'm quite put out by this betrayal.) It's absolutely not an idyllic summer and the book covers the entire war years and after as the characters make their way to the funeral of one of their own.
Themes you should know about: attempted suicide, child molestation, spousal abuse, infidelity (if that bothers you in a book), war themes, sexual promiscuity, underage sex, demeaning comments towards women. It's clearly not about one last summer at the house with the camomile lawn as the blurb in the back of the book promises.
Another point of contention: Sophy is spelled with a "y" throughout the text. Yet in the blurb on the back her name is spelled "Sophie". It seems rather big miss on proofreading for error.
SPOILERS BELOW:
I gave it three stars because it was well written. Though some of the themes made me uncomfortable, I was also drawn into the story hoping to find some redemptive qualities in the characters. Sex is a major theme. It starts out with the older cousin, Oliver, nineteen and freshly returned from the Spanish Civil War, being picked up from the train station by his cousin, Calypso. He promptly asks her if he can "f*ck her". She calmly demurs stating she plans on marrying for money and needs to remain a virgin. That really set the tone for the rest of the book. References to erections, a ten year old without knickers on and her bare bum, a flasher, Oliver's sexual desperation to sleep with his cousin, Uncle Richard repeatedly molesting young girls, a composer sleeping with a 16 year old because he was distraught, same composer having an affair with Helena calling her "phlegm" as his term of endearment... etc. I think the composer literally sleeps with every female character in the book. But the age of 16 is his threshold. Just messed up and so casually mentioned without any real stance on the wrongness of what was going on.
Here is what made me irate:
Uncle Richard repeatedly molesting young girls. It comes out that he sticks his hands up their skirts (maybe more but it isn't talked about). He confesses this to Calypso when she is in her twenties and had already experienced his attention when younger. He knows the wrongness but can't help himself. She sweeps it under the rug and then asks him to be her baby's godfather. (WTF.) Later in the book, she and Sophy compare notes and realize he did it to both of them. They then hurry to catch up to him as he's with two younger girls walking ahead of them. Then his wife mentions she knows he does this and was hoping his mistress, Monika, had cured him of it. Richard just mentions that Monika offered to shave herself bare for him. Just the casual acceptance of it is horrifying. I know this was during a time period where it wasn't talked about or hidden. But that doesn't make it right nor acceptable. And clearly Sophy has suffered psychologically from the abuse.
Hector abusing Calypso. Several vague references to his violence towards her when he drinks. And he also slaps her across the face suddenly in a conversation where she was disagreeing with him. She accepts it as his due. Other characters know about it, yet nothing is done or said.
It's a book full of intensely flawed characters with no redemptive qualities. I can't recommend it. I didn't get much out of it and didn't find it to be an enjoyable read.
January 18, 2015
I received this book as a digital ARC from the publisher through Net Galley in return for an honest review.
I requested this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to Open Road Media to allow me to read the eBook version of this book.
In the beginning of this book, five cousins - Calypso, Walter, Polly, Oliver, Sophy and the twins - are spending their holiday in their aunt house in a town in Cornwall. Their favorite place during this last summer holiday before the beginning of World War II was the beautiful camomile lawn.
Even if the Great War is used as a historical background, the author describes this family saga in a way that the reader gets involved with the main characters and their entwined lives.
The story if full of love, lust, regret and guilt and Mary Wesley managed quite well to go deeper in the feelings of this family.
The first time I have heard about this book was during a BBC Radio 4 dramatization, which the first broadcast, was in October 2007. By coincidence, this series is available again at BBC Radio 4 Extra.
About the author. It is amazing to know that she published her first adult novels when she was 70-years old. Before that, she wrote children's books, namely "Speaking Terms", "The Sixth Seal" and "Haphazard House". Now I am planning to read "A Sensible Life" which was published in 1990.
The Roseland Peninsula, Cornwall, UK 
City of Penzance, Cornwall
A TV series The Camomile Lawn (1992) was made based on this book. 
February 3, 2013
Mary Wesley has been on my 'to read' list for a very long time. I had heard that she didn't have her first book published until she was in her 70's and that she'd had amazing success after this, her 'breakthrough' novel. So when I saw it on the library shelf last week I grabbed it.
Written in 1984 the language is obviously not quite contemporary, but see past that and you will find a beautifully crafted novel, full of surprises, twists and turns, which will keep you guessing until the end. The novel begins in 1939, as war is about to break out. The setting is a house in Cornwall, high above the sea, that possesses an unusual camomile lawn. There are a lot of main characters who interact in many and varied ways: five cousins, their Aunt and Uncle, identical boy twins, sons of the local Rector, who become friends with the cousins, and a husband and wife - Austrian Jewish Refugees who assume an increasingly important role as the story unfolds.
As well as being evocative of the time, and full of humour, this is one hell of a sexy, naughty, book, and this is all the more amazing given that there is not a single description of 'the act'. Somehow Wesley, with her mature, crisp and uncensored imagination pulls off this difficult feat. She paints a very vivid picture of life in wartime, and the loosening of moral codes that occurs as a result of stress, opportunity, or a sense of 'well, we may not be here tomorrow so why not?'
By the end of the book, those characters who are still alive are 40 years older and through them we find out then, some of the back-story, and the answers to questions we were still asking. A great read, and for the writer, a study in clean dialogue, unweighted by all the superfluous 'she said/he wondered/I asked myself etc. etc. that litters so many novels. (Elaine)
Written in 1984 the language is obviously not quite contemporary, but see past that and you will find a beautifully crafted novel, full of surprises, twists and turns, which will keep you guessing until the end. The novel begins in 1939, as war is about to break out. The setting is a house in Cornwall, high above the sea, that possesses an unusual camomile lawn. There are a lot of main characters who interact in many and varied ways: five cousins, their Aunt and Uncle, identical boy twins, sons of the local Rector, who become friends with the cousins, and a husband and wife - Austrian Jewish Refugees who assume an increasingly important role as the story unfolds.
As well as being evocative of the time, and full of humour, this is one hell of a sexy, naughty, book, and this is all the more amazing given that there is not a single description of 'the act'. Somehow Wesley, with her mature, crisp and uncensored imagination pulls off this difficult feat. She paints a very vivid picture of life in wartime, and the loosening of moral codes that occurs as a result of stress, opportunity, or a sense of 'well, we may not be here tomorrow so why not?'
By the end of the book, those characters who are still alive are 40 years older and through them we find out then, some of the back-story, and the answers to questions we were still asking. A great read, and for the writer, a study in clean dialogue, unweighted by all the superfluous 'she said/he wondered/I asked myself etc. etc. that litters so many novels. (Elaine)
December 30, 2013
I first came across The Camomile Lawn in the early 90s when it was a must-watch television series. From an author whose literary career had only started when she was in her seventies, it was rather racy and had a cast of well known celebrities. I was intrigued to find out how it came across as a book when I'd already seen it on television.
In fact, I think the enjoyment of the book was enhanced by having a picture of the characters in my mind as the story enfolded.
The camomile lawn was just a prop at the country home in Cornwall of Helena and Richard, who were hosting what was to be the last of what had been an annual holiday of their nieces and nephews as World War2 loomed.
Calypso was the glamorous niece, lusted after by Oliver, but she was determined to marry a rich man. Polly was in love with twins, between whom she could not choose. Sophy was 12years old, all eyes and ears. A couple of refugee Jews who joined the party became an integral part of the group and relations between the members of this cast were almost incestuous. Calypso found a rich husband, Hector, and then proceeded to be very generous with her favours to all and sundry. Virtue and fidelity was in short supply amongst old and young alike.
We get a view of how everything turned out as they gather together many years later for the funeral of one of the group. In fact I found this book so enjoyable I would now like to see the tv series again.
June 6, 2011
A novel about a group of English cousins at the eve of WWII and what happened to them in the war, with flash forwards to the present day. We see much of the action through the eyes of Sophy, the odd girl out because she's much younger than the others and because of her Anglo-Eurasian race. As in other England at war novels, the war gives these young people opportunities for adventures – sexual ones – that they wouldn't have had in conservative pre-war days. There are some interesting twists in their emotional lives and several of the characters end up in places they never expected to go. I like that one of the women who finds herself behaving unconventionally is a woman in her 40s who had been the model of a good wife. I was obscurely pleased that the femme fatale cousin wears the same perfume I do, Mitsouko.
I have some quibbles with some of the plot: there's a dramatic subplot that doesn't go anywhere either plot-wise or emotionally, and nearly every character is revealed to have some sexual quirk. What a family! I had some skepticism about how the story ends, too, but I acknowledge that it’s a door opening to possibilities and not a "they lived happily ever after" false note.
I have some quibbles with some of the plot: there's a dramatic subplot that doesn't go anywhere either plot-wise or emotionally, and nearly every character is revealed to have some sexual quirk. What a family! I had some skepticism about how the story ends, too, but I acknowledge that it’s a door opening to possibilities and not a "they lived happily ever after" false note.
December 9, 2015
I saw the TV adaptation of this years ago and finally got round to reading the book. Strangely, I was disappointed. There's no discernible plot and some of the characters, particularly Aunt Helena are hard to like. The book follows a group of cousins and their families through the war years from their last summer together in Cornwall in August 1939. There are also flash-forwards to the funeral of one of the characters in the 1980's, where various story strands get resolved, sort of. The characters are selfish in the main, the younger ones treating the war as some great adventure. Maybe it was. Maybe I can't relate to them. Overall I was expecting something more.
February 1, 2008
Why did I waste the time to finish this book? A group of cousins exist in meaningless, selfish, immoral, wasted lives in England (and in the war, off page) during WWII.
August 24, 2023
Cornwall, August 1939. Cousins Oliver, Calypso, Polly and Walter meet up every summer at their Uncle Richard's beautiful coastal house which is set on the cliff edge and has a remarkable camomile lawn. Richard's wife Helena grudgingly accepts this annual invasion of HER house by her husband's nieces and nephews, excepting Sophy, Richard's young niece who now lives with them permanently and was not part of the bargain when she married him and whom Helena dislikes quite a lot. The local rector has twin sons, David and Paul and has taken in Jewish refugees Max and Monika Erstweiler, all of whom visit the Cuthbertson house frequently. Max and Monika's son Pauli is being held in a concentration camp as he did not manage to escape with his parents.
After the brief, carefree summer is over and the second world war is announced, the book follows this group of characters as they catch up with each other at various intervals over the next five years. Sophy is sent to school in Cambridge, Calypso marries an MP, Hector, Polly undertakes secret war work and Oliver and Walter sign up. Max and Monika are briefly interned to check they are not spies, and afterwards Max continues his career as a professional musician and Monika moves into the Cornwall house with Richard as a cook and housekeeper. She is better at these things than Helena who becomes more and more absent from Cornwall and starts an affair with Max.
There is a cleverly written dual timeline which fast forwards events some fifty years, to Max's funeral, and over the course of their separate journeys it is gradually revealed what happens to each character during the war. Much of the book is actually set in London, and centres around the female characters, mainly Calypso and Helena but also Sophy, Polly and Monika.
To start with I found it very similar to The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard which I read recently. I wish that I had not read these two books so close together, or that I had at least read The Camomile Lawn first. None of the characters are particularly likeable, being quite secretive, selfish and entitled and there are several loveless marriages and many affairs in which they all sleep with each other, including cousins. I particularly liked the way the camomile lawn represents a time of peace and stability for the family and is referred to in the book several times (but not overdone). It is very well written and I really enjoyed following the characters lives.
After the brief, carefree summer is over and the second world war is announced, the book follows this group of characters as they catch up with each other at various intervals over the next five years. Sophy is sent to school in Cambridge, Calypso marries an MP, Hector, Polly undertakes secret war work and Oliver and Walter sign up. Max and Monika are briefly interned to check they are not spies, and afterwards Max continues his career as a professional musician and Monika moves into the Cornwall house with Richard as a cook and housekeeper. She is better at these things than Helena who becomes more and more absent from Cornwall and starts an affair with Max.
There is a cleverly written dual timeline which fast forwards events some fifty years, to Max's funeral, and over the course of their separate journeys it is gradually revealed what happens to each character during the war. Much of the book is actually set in London, and centres around the female characters, mainly Calypso and Helena but also Sophy, Polly and Monika.
To start with I found it very similar to The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard which I read recently. I wish that I had not read these two books so close together, or that I had at least read The Camomile Lawn first. None of the characters are particularly likeable, being quite secretive, selfish and entitled and there are several loveless marriages and many affairs in which they all sleep with each other, including cousins. I particularly liked the way the camomile lawn represents a time of peace and stability for the family and is referred to in the book several times (but not overdone). It is very well written and I really enjoyed following the characters lives.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 23, 2017
I fell in love with this novel already on the first page where Helena, annoyed and determined irons her newspaper to restore it to its proper form and order after it has been red by her husband…
It is just days before the outbreak of the II World War. Six cousins arrive at the house on a Cornish cliff to enjoy their last summer holiday before the war. Beautiful Calypso, the twins, Oliver, Polly and Walter, are all young and innocent, in their late teens or early twenties, with their whole lives ahead of them.
The house belongs to aunt Helena, who really isn't anybody's aunt. Uncle Richard, who lost his leg in the Great War and never stops talking about (and who is everybody's uncle), is Helena's second husband. Holiday is filled with pleasure and innocent games, loves and infatuations.
Then comes the War. Men go to service, women contribute to the war effort in the top secret offices, there are supply shortages, coupons for clothes, air raids and telegraphs about killed and lost in action. Despite all that, life doesn't stop. On the contrary, life goes on and develops in most unexpected ways. Peacetime rules don't apply, vicinity of death makes everyone, young and old, look for happiness where it can be found and not, where the conventions suggest it should be….
40 years later those that survived meet again at a funeral, when all stories are told to the end.
It was a really good read. I liked the novel and it’s vivid characters, whose life choices i don’t necessarily agree with. Different, not mainstream to say the least, but still fascinating :-) Couldn’t stop reading.
It is just days before the outbreak of the II World War. Six cousins arrive at the house on a Cornish cliff to enjoy their last summer holiday before the war. Beautiful Calypso, the twins, Oliver, Polly and Walter, are all young and innocent, in their late teens or early twenties, with their whole lives ahead of them.
The house belongs to aunt Helena, who really isn't anybody's aunt. Uncle Richard, who lost his leg in the Great War and never stops talking about (and who is everybody's uncle), is Helena's second husband. Holiday is filled with pleasure and innocent games, loves and infatuations.
Then comes the War. Men go to service, women contribute to the war effort in the top secret offices, there are supply shortages, coupons for clothes, air raids and telegraphs about killed and lost in action. Despite all that, life doesn't stop. On the contrary, life goes on and develops in most unexpected ways. Peacetime rules don't apply, vicinity of death makes everyone, young and old, look for happiness where it can be found and not, where the conventions suggest it should be….
40 years later those that survived meet again at a funeral, when all stories are told to the end.
It was a really good read. I liked the novel and it’s vivid characters, whose life choices i don’t necessarily agree with. Different, not mainstream to say the least, but still fascinating :-) Couldn’t stop reading.
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