Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #48479 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Synopsis
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.

From the Publisher
A vivid and lively picture of wartime London and Cornwall as seen through the eyes of five cousins.

About the Author
Mary Wesley was born near Windsor in 1912. Her education took her to the London School of Economics and during the War she worked in the War Office. Although she initially fulfilled her parent's expectations in marrying an aristocrat she then scandalised them when she divorced him in 1945 and moved in with the great love of her life, Eric Siepmann. The couple married in 1952, once his wife had finally been persuaded to divorce him. She used to comment that her 'chief claim to fame is arrested development, getting my first novel [Jumping the Queue] published at the age of seventy'. She went on to write a further nine novels, three of which were adapted for television, including the best-selling The Camomile Lawn. Mary Wesley was awarded the CBE in the 1995 New Year's honour list and died in 2002.

Customer Reviews

A wonderful book
This is truly a wonderful book that I have read on several occasions.
Mary Wesley is a fabulous writer.

Great Holiday Read
I read this book on holiday in Cornwall and couldn't put it down. There are quite a few characters to get used to, but once you have done that they all grow on you (some more than others). The author writes from experience and you believe every word on the page. The book starts just as war is declared and you know that their world is about to changed forever. They go off to war, some survive some die, they get married and divorced and have affairs, they have children. The book follows them through the ups and downs of the privilidged in London and jumps back and forward in time to a funeral being held. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it.

A quick and easy but enjoyable read
This novel, which was made into a TV miniseries in the early 1990s, incorporates many themes and elements of plot which reappear in other Mary Wesley novels: unconventional relationships, heroines with names derived from ancient mythology, twins and cousins, motherhood, love arriving late in life, and the life-changing experience of living through the Second World War on the home front. It's a quick and easy read, involving but not too taxing, with plot developments which may occasionally strain credulity but characters who are fully-fleshed, unconventional and ready to seize whatever opportunities their lives bring.