The Fortnight in September

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While out with Pat, Mary considers how “She had thought of life as something that just began, before you knew, and went quietly on, until you died: she had never known that it could end—and begin again so wonderfully” (p. 256). How does this brush with romance symbolize both an ending and a beginning for her? One of the joys of reading The Fortnight in September is how R C Sherriff reveals the inner lives of each member of the family; their private regrets and desires for their lives to be different. Sherriff, R. C. (1968). No Leading Lady: An Autobiography. London: Gollancz. pp.14, 22. ISBN 0-575-00155-0. Mary fell in love. And Mrs Stevens broke with convention to sit down with he landlady, to offer a sympathetic ear when she spoke of her concerns about the future. This story is following the five lives of the Stevens family as they go on their annual holiday to the seaside. The plot isn't grand, the writing is simple, the characters aren't exuberant...and I loved it!!!

Hell, to Mrs. Stevens would be a white hot Clapham Junction with devils in peaked caps. Gentle humour The following is excerpted from R.C. Sherriff's timeless classic, The Fortnight in September . Sherriff was born in 1896. Journey's End , based on his letters home from WWI trenches, was an enormous success and became a classic. In the 1930s, Sherriff went to Hollywood to write the script for The Invisible Man , and subsequently worked on many successful films. He wrote several novels, including The Fortnight in September , Greengates , and The Hopkins Manuscript before his death in 1975.I am dipping into various collections and enjoying the work of a range of poets: Kathleen Jamie and Helen Dunmore for example. Voor het verhaal moet je het inderdaad niet doen: De familie Stevens gaat voor de zoveelste keer op rij twee weken met vakantie naar Bognor, een kleine badplaats aan de kust van West Sussex in het zuidoosten van Engeland. Eer ze op de trein zitten ben je al ruim 100 pagina's ver. En eenmaal gearriveerd "dralen de dagen eindeloos" en lijkt het einde van de vakantie nooit te zullen komen. On rainy days, when the clouds drove across on a westerly wind, the signs of fine weather came from over the Railway Embankment at the bottom of the garden. Many a time, when Mrs. Stevens specially wanted it to clear up, she would look round the corner of the side door and search along the horizon of the Railway Embankment for a streak of lighter sky. Trewin, J. C. "Sherriff, Robert Cedric". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (onlineed.). Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/31678. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) The man on his holidays becomes the man he might have been, the man he could have been, had things worked out a little differently,” writes R. C. Sherriff in The Fortnight in September, his unassuming but utterly beguiling tale of an ordinary lower-middle-class London family during the interwar years, on their annual holiday to the English seaside town of Bognor Regis. “All men are equal on their holidays: all are free to dream their castles without thought of expense, or skill of architect.”

If you haven’t read Stonerby John Williamsthis might be a good opportunity. The main character leads an unremarkable life, which can be described as an accumulation of failure and disappointment. But it is a life worth reading about. You can read my review here.No matter their circumstances, Sherriff’s characters remain steadfastly familiar, common or garden heroes (and villains). And it’s this that makes his novels so strangely enthralling. He writes without fanfare or affectation, but most importantly, with sympathy and compassion. However inconsequential, unambitious or even downright foolish they might appear to be, he treats his characters’ lives—their hopes and dreams, their fears and disgruntlements—with the greatest of respect. He had the journey organised too. There was luggage to be sent on. Connections to organise. A compartment to secure. And familiar sights – including their own street – to watched out for. The Fortnight in September is set in the real seaside resort town of Bognor Regis, in West Sussex, England. Look up present-day tourism options in Bognor. What would a vacation there look like now? When Mr. Stevens brings his wife a cup of tea on the morning of their departure, she remarks internally that he “hadn’t brought her a cup of tea like this for—oh—ever so long” (p. 27). What is the significance of this gesture? What other small gestures in the book hold a lot of emotional importance?

Arriving in Bognor, they head to Seaview, the guesthouse where they stay every year. It’s a bit shabbier than it once was - the landlord has died and his wife is struggling as the number of guests dwindles every year. But the family finds bliss in booking a slightly bigger cabana, with a balcony, and in their rediscovery of the familiar places they visit every year. Yet what lingers in the mind, at the end? This is a book about change. It has the poignant charm of a story that knows its time is slipping away even as it happens. The children are growing up; the days of the boarding-house are numbered; the holiday, perhaps, will never quite be like this again. And holidays are, by their very nature, bittersweet: you only enjoy them so much because you know they will end. Lovely. The Fortnight in September was a very brave book to write because it was not obviously ‘about’ anything except the ‘drama of the undramatic’. And yet the greatness of the novel is that it is about each one of us: all of human life is here in the seemingly simple description of the family’s annual holiday. Thus, for reasons we do not have to explain to regular Persephone readers, this is a book which fits fairly and squarely on the Persephone list.

R.C. Sherriff

Sherriff was nominated along with Eric Maschwitz and Claudine West for an Academy award for writing an adapted screenplay for Goodbye, Mr. Chips which was released in 1939. [22] His 1955 screenplays, The Dam Busters and The Night My Number Came Up were nominated for best British screenplay BAFTA awards. [23] Work [ edit ] Plays [ edit ] The golden hours of life leave no sharp outlines to which the memory can cling: no spoken words remain – nor even little gestures and thoughts; only a deep gratitude that lingers on impervious to time. Records the default button state of the corresponding category & the status of CCPA. It works only in coordination with the primary cookie.

They had answered an advertisement, and discovered Mr. and Mrs. Huggett to be a strangely assorted couple. Mr. Huggett was stout and jovial. He had been a valet to a man who left him some money, and he had bought Seaview. He was easygoing, slightly patronising, and drank. Mrs. Huggett was thin, and anxious to please to the point of embarrassment. They had a small servant girl called Molly, who, being squat, bow-legged, and red-haired, had remained with them faithfully throughout the years. Search Reading Matters Search for: Archives Archives Categories Categories Tags #TBR21 1001 Books to read before you die American literature ANZ lit Australian crime Australian literature Australian women writers AWW2016 AWW2019 AWW2021 BAME writer Book lists British literature Canadian literature CanLit Charlotte Wood cold crime crime crime fiction Dublin French literature Giller Prize Irish literature Italian literature Japanese literature journalism London marriage memoir narrative non-fiction New York non-fiction novella OzLit psychological thriller Reading Australia 2016 religion satire Shadow Giller short stories Six degrees of separation Southern Cross crime TBR40 translated fiction travel Triple Choice Tuesday true crime William Trevor women in translation World War Two Follow Reading Matters on WordPress.com Follow on FacebookAfter recovering from his wounds, Sherriff worked as an insurance adjuster from 1918 to 1928 at Sun Insurance Company, London. [9] Proprio non ricordo come questo libro sia finito nella mia wishlist e da lì prima o poi inevitabilmente approdato alla lettura: sconosciuto il titolo, altrettanto ignoto l’autore che mai avevo sentito nominare, poco allettante la sinossi, nessun consiglio di amici, probabilmente si è trattato di una recensione galeotta che prometteva troppo. over all lay a spirit of joyful, unrestrained freedom. They were no servants – no masters: no clerks – no managers – just men and women whose common profession was Holidaymaker.” The Fortnight in September. 1931. OCLC 246884057. (Reprinted in 2006 by Persephone Books); 2021 pbk reprint. Scribner. 7 September 2021. ISBN 978-1-9821-8478-0.