Mary Wesley - A Sensible Life

Review by Babs Simpson on show 30th Sept '10.
Flora Trevelyan is 10yrs old at the start of the book, virtually abandoned by her selfish parents who are completely besotted with each other.
she realises that they don't want her although her mother does manage to put on a show in front of other people, with the result that Flora becomes very self-contained and spends her time watching other people. The story starts in the 1920's in a small town in France where the middleclass English take their children for holidays. Flora is taken up by some of these families and for the first time finds real care and affection, witnessing for herself the love that normal families enjoy. Despite being so young, she falls helplessly and hopelessly in love with 3 young men.
Her ghastly parents travel back to India where her father is based in the Army and Flora is despatched to boarding school in England where she is left for 7 yrs, not seeing her parents during ll this time. But she does see various members of the families who were s kind to her in France, including the 3 young men whom she still loves.
She is invited to stay with one of the families when she is 15, on the brink of becoming a lovely young woman, thus posing a threat to the mothers who can see that their sons are in danger of falling for someone who, in their eyes, is quite unsuitable as a future wife.
Fora carries on her self-contained life until, on the point of being despatched to India to join her parents (with new wardrobe of clothes for her vain mother), she jumps ship and stays for a while in France (leaving the trunk of new clothes to the the journey without her).
The war comes, various of her acquaintances are lost and Flora joins te Women's Land Army after having worked as a housemaid.
As ever, she is resourceful, observant and determinedly independent.
Eventually, having had relationships with all her original loves, she meets Cosmo and they get together.
I like Mary Welsey's style. Her first book was published when she was 70yrs old and this is her 10th.
As a reviewer from the Daily Telegraph said "She writes with the knowledge and wisdom of her serene old age and the emotional exuberance of flowing young womanhood".
I quite agree. If you've never tried any of her books please do so, they are very entertaining.
Review by Babs