Sherriff also wrote prose. A novelised version of Journey's End, co-written with Vernon Bartlett, was published in 1930. [17] His 1939 novel, The Hopkins Manuscript is an H. G. Wells-influenced post-apocalyptic story about an earth devastated because of a collision with the Moon. [18] Its sober language and realistic depiction of an average man coming to terms with a ruined England is said [ citation needed] to have been an influence on later science fiction authors such as John Wyndham and Brian Aldiss. The Fortnight in September, an earlier novel, published in 1931, is a rather more plausible story about a Bognor holiday enjoyed by a lower-middle-class family from Dulwich. [19] It was nominated by Kazuo Ishiguro as a book to 'inspire, uplift and offer escape' in a list compiled by The Guardian during the COVID-19 pandemic, describing it as "just about the most uplifting, life-affirming novel I can think of right now". [20] Well, this was delightful! The beautiful cover is what made me stop and read the summary of this book. I didn't realize when I requested it that itnwas a re-release from 1931, but once I did I felt that almost added an extra charm to it. Kind of like the feeling I get when I watch Downton Abbey. Things are very much different, but then some things are still exactly the same. Human beings worry about what we are wearing, what we are going to have for dinner, about our jobs and our families...so I thought why not? Let's see what life was like for the Stevens family as they prepare for their two week vacation (annual holiday) to Bognor in September. At one point in the novel, Mr. Stevens considers “what a very happy place the world would be if people could lead each other quietly aside, and gently but firmly tell each other the little things they unconsciously do that irritate and annoy their fellows” (p. 103). Do you agree with this sentiment? But...perhaps this is only because it is a book of its time (published in 1931), and written by a man, but I found how R.C.Sherriff handled the interior life of his wife very poor. The book is mostly from Mr Stevens' point of view, while we are let into the heads of the other characters now and again, but all Mrs Stevens is allowed to think about is how her husband's resignation as secretary of the football club was accepted, whether the buns she's bought for the family are too stale, how scary it is changing trains at Clapham Junction, and so on. Towards the end there's a tiny glimpse about how she is happy to have an hour on her own in the evenings without anyone, but I really think there would have been more going on inside Mrs Stevens' head than buns and trains. But, that issue aside, I still loved this book.

The sea had frightened Mrs. Stevens, and she had never conquered her fear. It frightened her most when it was dead calm. Something within her shuddered at the great smooth, slimy surface, stretching into a nothingness that made her giddy. For their honeymoon they had taken apartments with Mr. and Mrs. Huggett in St. Matthews Road— called “Seaview,” because from the lavatory window you could see the top of a lamppost on the beachfront. After recovering from his wounds, Sherriff worked as an insurance adjuster from 1918 to 1928 at Sun Insurance Company, London. [9]

Wordle Helper

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 in Bognor. 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. But the house had been well done up and was scrupulously clean. The Stevenses had returned the following year, and they had returned ever since, for twenty Septembers, wet and fine, hot and cold. We are being recommended to read long books, or comfort reads, or books about restrictions and the plague, or books that offer escapism. But we may not want this. What everyone seems to agree on is that readers are reading more, and readers have more time for more reading. But I don’t want to work through a list of long books I’ve been meaning to read forever; I don’t want books to cheer me up; or to match any low mood; or books that pander to a reduced ability to concentrate.

I thought we were never going to reach our destination, but of course we got there in the end. Bognor!Nu, 90 jaar later, werd het voor het eerst vertaald. (Behoorlijk) goed vertaald bovendien. Dat is belangrijk, want dit is geen story-, wel een taal- en sfeerdriven boek. 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?