Graham Swift's impressive new novella tracks the details of one fateful day in March 1924, the final fling in a secret relationship. To tell more than that will spoil, but the 132-page novella is in large part an absorbing evocation of rural Berkshire on an unseasonably sunny Sunday - so-called Mothering Sunday - in March 1924.
Splendid sun there may be in that corner of the shire, but there are shadows too a-plenty, like the loss of four sons from different families in the First World War. There is a sense of heavy absence and loss in rooms, even in the spaces outside, as both sets of parents of a prospective bride and groom meet up for lunch by the Thames, at Henley.
The story is essentially that of the 90-year-old Jane Fairchild as she recalls that particular Mothering Sunday in all its indelible detail. She also recalls things that could have happened but didn't, things that could have been said that weren't. Mothering Sunday was Jane's special day off, as it customarily was for maids and cooks in England at that period. It was Jane's to spend as she wished, with a half crown as bonus from Mr Niven, the kindly man of the house.
Born an orphan, as a maid Jane became fascinated with words, after she found herself entranced by a set of boys' classics she found in the Nivens' library. Because of this fascination with story-telling and the power of the imagination, because of her interest in words themselves - and the acquisition of new ones -she would herself become a popular writer in time.
Thus, the fact that she is a novelist allows the novella to become an ongoing reflection on the process of writing a piece of fiction - the permutations of plot that could alter everything, the lines of dialogue that are chosen, the choices that are made by the story-teller.
It's a little like reading recent John Banville in that regard, as thought Swift is questioning the reader's reasonable expectation of a solid, unwavering narrative. You feel Swift may even be slightly uneasy with the authorial freedom and omniscience he has granted himself through three decades or so of writing. He won the Booker Prize in 1996 with his novel Last Orders which was later made into a successful film starring Michael Caine, Bob Hoskins, Tom Courtenay, David Hemmings and Helen Mirren.
Granted it is a mere 132 pages, but Mothering Sunday should end earlier, from which one might conclude that it would be better as a short story. It dissipates somewhat towards the close, and when it moves away from the core events it loses fizz. Nevertheless, as a depiction of how a memory can obsess someone all their life, it is fascinating in its progress, just as one would expect from Swift, one of the very best fiction-writers at work in English today.
Paddy Kehoe
