The Beginning of Spring by Penelope Fitzgerald

Hers are slim volumes that, by their very perfection, put wordier efforts to shame

In 1913 the journey from Moscow to Charing Cross, changing at Warsaw, cost fourteen pounds, six shillings and threepence and took two and a half days. In the March of 1913 Frank Reid’s wife Nellie started out on this journey from 22 Lipka Street in the Khamovniki district, taking the three children with her - that is Dolly, Ben and Annushka. Annushka (or Annie) was two and three-quarters and likely to be an even greater nuisance than the others. However Dunyasha, the nurse who looked after the children at 22 Lipka Street, did not go with them.

This is the perfect opening of Penelope Fitzgerald’s The Beginning of Spring, written with her usual talent for sparse, meticulous prose. Hers are slim volumes that, by their very perfection, put wordier efforts to shame.

In March 1913, Frank Reid's wife abruptly leaves him and Moscow for her native England. The children, wonderfully self reliant and precocious, only make it a couple of train stops before being delivered back into the hands of the Moscow station master and from there to their bemused father.

(by Miranda Ingram)

The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald

The story of a modest dream. A widow, Florence Green, wants to open a bookshop in the small town of Hardborough, in which she has lived for ten years.

After the death of her husband she simply wants to make a living and be independent. However, the decision to open a bookshop without due attention to Mrs Gamart's aspirations proves to be Florence Green's downfall. The former is a well connected and ruthless woman with plans of her own. However, one senses her objection to the bookshop is less significant than her objection to the unyielding FG.

This brilliant little Booker-shortlisted gem shows the best and worst of parochial life. It illustrates how people can be easily swayed with little consideration as to principles. The humour (unintentionally provided by self-important people) and the tensions found in the politics of this small town dictates the tone of this tale.

FG has some significant allies, but disappointingly the majority go with the influential flow and at the end, with a Hardy-esque touch, her arch-defender unwittingly plays into the hands of her arch-enemy. This vivid chapter in the life of a kindly and courageous woman is, sadly, described with great credibility.

Reviewed by Marie Hayward
Published in the Rendezvous magazine
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