📖 Book Nostalgia ~ The Go - Between by L P Hartley

I'm really privileged to read so many latest release books which are so current they haven't even hit the book store shelves that I forget about the books which have influenced my reading over the years.

So, welcome to my mid-month Book Nostalgia feature where I'm allowing myself the luxury of going back in time with some of my favourite reads.

Let's wallow in book memories...

Published 1953
Penguin Modern Classics
This edition 2004

'The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there'

When one long, hot summer, young Leo is staying with a school-friend at Brandham Hall, he begins to act as a messenger between Ted, the farmer, and Marian, the beautiful young woman up at the hall. He becomes drawn deeper and deeper into their dangerous game of deceit and desire, until his role brings him to a shocking and premature revelation. The haunting story of a young boy's awakening into the secrets of the adult world, The Go-Between is also an unforgettable evocation of the boundaries of Edwardian society.

📖 My Thoughts..

There's something about that classic opening sentence that immediately takes me back to the long hot summer of 1976, when, after completing my English Literature A' Level exam, I was able to read something that wasn't Shakespeare, Chaucer or Milton. Blue skies seem to stretch endlessly into my, then unknown, future and with the sound of my dad mowing the lawn, and my mum chatting to the next door neighbour, I settled down on my red sun lounger, with a can of Lilt and an Aztec bar, to read this classic story of forbidden love.

Thirteen year old Leo is staying with his school friend, Marcus when he develops a teenage crush on his friend's beautiful older sister. Wanting to please Marion, Leo becomes embroiled in the clandestine relationship which is developing between Marion and Ted Burgess, a local tenant farmer. Completely besotted by the beautiful and beguiling, Marion, Leo is unaware of the significance of the messages he is passing between Marion and Ted until it's too late. Looking back at this time in his youth, the much older Leo looks back at the events of the summer of 1900 and the devastating consequences of Marion and Ted's ill-fated love affair.

The Go-Between is a classic coming-of-age novel which evokes the languid summer of 1900 and the social and moral restrictions of the Edwardian era. I've read the story a couple of times since 1976 and although I can't recall seeing the 1971 film version which starred Julie Christie and Alan Bates, I did enjoy the 2015 remake starring Joanna Vanderham as Marion, Ben Batt as Ted, and Jack Hollington as young Leo.

About the Author

Leslie Poles Hartley was born in 1895 and educated at Harrow and Balliol College, Oxford. He is best known for Facial Justice, the Eustace and Hilda trilogy and The Go-Between, which won the Heinemann Foundation Prize in 1954 and whose opening sentence has become almost proverbial: 'The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.' He was appointed a CBE in 1955, having won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in addition to the Heinemann. He died in 1972.

(Source: publisher website)

Christmas Read ~ A Maigret Christmas by Georges Simenon

Penguin Classic
23 November 2017

My thanks to Ruth Killick Publicity for my copy of this book

From 2013-2019 Penguin is publishing new translations of all 75 Maigret novels, the work of a team of the world's top translators, This unprecedented translation project offers readers a new opportunity to discover the 'extraordinary master pieces of the twentieth century' (John Banville).

In November for the first time, Penguin published the three stories together, in a new translation by David Coward. This seasonal collection features Inspector Maigret and other characters from the Maigret novels in three separate cases:

A Maigret Christmas

Seven Small Crosses in a Notebook

The little Restaurant near Place des Ternes: A Christmas Story for Grown Ups


I have to admit from the offset that I haven't read any of the Maigret stories before. Having got that confession out of the way, let us concentrate on this selection of three Maigret Christmas stories which have been newly translated.

Perhaps slightly longer than a short story and more of a novella, A Maigret Christmas, sees the indomitable Maigret involved in clearing up a mystery right on his doorstep and whilst the great man has been looking forward to a lie-in on Christmas morning, it would seem that fate has decreed otherwise.

Again more of a novella, Seven Small Crosses in a Notebook, gives us an insight into the workings of Maigret's police department as the action takes place on Christmas Eve in the police control room. And whilst Maigret does not make an appearance in this story, there is still evidence of  his influence in the way the operation works. To say more about the Seven Small Crosses in a Notebook would, I think spoil the effect.

And the third and final story, which is much shorter is The little Restaurant near Place des Ternes: A Christmas Story for Grown Ups which sees a festive charitable gesture turn into something far more significant, and which heralds some important changes. Again, Maigret doesn't make an appearance in this story but as ever the characteristics of this author's fine skill with words is in evidence.,

For anyone, like me, who haven't read any of the Maigret stories before then this taster is a good introduction to George Simenon's most famous detective and to his unique style of writing and sharp observation of the human psyche. The classic nature of the stories stand out and it is testament to the strength of the original writing that the stories continue to be so successful. The order of Maigret's sleuthing belongs to that golden age of crime detection when everything seemed to be concluded with no jagged edges or blurry boundaries and as such makes a welcome change from today's more grittier crime investigation novels.

A Maigret Christmas is beautifully translated by David Coward, and is elegantly produced with an evocative cover, which is so reminiscent of France. Without doubt, this is a lovely introduction to classic crime and to a worthy hero.

About the Author

Georges Simenon was born in Liege, Belgium in 1903. Between 1931 and 1972 he published five novels and twenty-eight short stories featuring Inspector Maigret. This trio of festive tales,Un Noel de Maigret, was originally published in 1951 when Simenon was living in the USA. He died, in Switzerland in 1989.

~****~