Marghanita Laski (1915–1988)

This is a short and surprising book, about a woman transported back in time.[return][return]Melanie is a 1950s housewife who is recovering both from giving birth and then a fit of TB. After being confined to bed for several months, she is allowed to have a change of scene - lying down on the Chaise Longue she had picked up on a whim in a second hand shop.[return][return]After a nap, she wakes up to find herself in a room she doesnt recognise, wearing clothes she doesnt own and being called a different name. It seems she has travelled back to the 1860s. She has no idea how she got there and how she can get back to her own time and place. [return][return]Is she dreaming? Has she actually travelled back in time?[return][return]Millie's restricted life (she's very ill and incapable of much movement) and Melanie never sees anything beyond the one room. She is courted by someone she doesnt really trust and finally comes to believe that she is dying - either in this timeline or in her "real" timeline of the 1950s. The book leaves it where you can then decide what was real and whether you believe she actually dies (and from what). If she dies in 1846, does she die in the 1950s? Who will miss her?… (mer)

Published in 1946, this is the story of Deborah, who we first meet on the day her husband Graham is going off to the middle east for the war effort. He refuses to stay faithful, and as Deborah is rather a selfish woman, she takes this as permission not to stay faithful too.

Deborah gets a job in London, leaving her young son Timmy under the care of her housekeeper. She soon starts making her way through various affairs, social climbing and learning to appreciate what she sees as the "good things" in life, despite there being a war on. Being married with a child is rarely thought about, apart from when it can be seen as an advantage in getting a newer and better lover.

Deborah is ultimately a very selfish woman, with little commitment to her marriage vows once her husband has gone abroad, and when it seems that Graham is going abroad (or the housekeeper is threatening to quit) all she can think of is how this will affect her and the life she has managed to acquire.

This book isn't shocking, per se (there's no explicit sex scenes for instance) but considering the time it was published, covers a scenario that isnt discussed much - just how did women survive without "company" when the men were away?… (mer)

This is an intriguing little piece. Melanie buys a Victorian Chaise-Longue while she is in the early stages of pregnancy. She also has a tubercular shadow on the lung and is forced into rest for the remainder of the pregnancy. The book starts after she has given birth and she is being allowed a change of scene and is moved onto the chaise-longue in the living room. There she falls asleep. When she awakes she is still on the chaise-longue, but has been transported into the body of Milly Barnes, Victorian fallen women & consumptive. The definition of self, who is Melanie if she occupies Milly's body, if she dies here will she die at home and can she ever get back. There is something quite compelling about this, watching Melanie and her fearing her loss of identity and trying to get to grips with the past and her potential future.… (mer)