The Camomile Lawn (King Penguin) [Paperback]

Mary Wesley (Author)

Book Description

Series: King Penguin | Publication Date: May 1, 1995

Sad, funny, and whimsical, The Camomile Lawn is the story of one extended family's adventures in London during the Blitz. "A distinctive, absorbing novel, told with a true storyteller's verve, an enchanting ability to involve, touch and surprise the reader."

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Told with elegance and asperity by the superb Anna Massey' -- Sunday Telegraph 'Anna Massey could read the telephone directory and I would listen. When she's reading a writer of the quality of Mary Wesley, it becomes a real pleasure.' -- Oxford Times --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Mary Wesley was born in 1912. Her education took her to the London School of Economics, and during the war, she worked in the War Office. She published her first novel, Jumping the Queue at the age of seventy. It was followed by nine more. Mary Wesley died in 2002. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (May 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 014012392X
• ISBN-13: 978-0140123920
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #207,145 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

69 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my all-time favourites for holiday reading, April 15, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Camomile Lawn (King Penguin) (Paperback)

Vividly paints a picture of wartime life in London and rural England, from the point of view of some unorthodox characters. It is one of my all-time favourite books - not because it is particularly 'literary' or a great classic, but because it is such an absorbing and touching read. All Mary Wesley's books are good, but this one is by far the best

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars War time experiences., June 13, 2001

By 

Beverley Strong (Australia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Camomile Lawn (King Penguin) (Paperback)

I found this to be a delightful story ,set firstly in just pre-war England,about a group of cousins and how they interact with each other as the war begins. I wonder if the sexual licenses taken were really a reflection of how young people felt at that time--live for all your worth today for tomorrow we'll probably be dead-- or would it have happened an any case.You really come to grips with these characters as the book is written by a woman in her 70's who HAS lived and obviously knows what she's writing about. Great read and I'll be looking for more by Mary Wesley--a woman after ny own heart.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The intensity of life in war-time, June 20, 2006

By 

Ralph Blumenau (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Camomile Lawn (King Penguin) (Paperback)

The book opens on the very eve of the Second World War, with five cousins on holiday at the Cornish home of their Aunt Helena and Uncle Richard (all upper middle class). Four of them (two young women, two young men) are aged 19 or 20, the fifth is Sophy who is just ten. There are also the twin sons of the local rector, who has also taken in a Jewish refugee couple, Max and Monika, from Austria. The novel traces the lives principally of these eleven characters during the war, much of it set in London. Under the intensity of life in war-time, the young people lose any conventional inhibitions they might possibly have had under other circumstances. (I say `possibly', because uninhibited behaviour had been the mark of certain young socialites in the 1920s). One can hardly keep track of the sexual permutations and combinations between them. Even middle-aged Uncle Richard and Aunt Helena have unorthodox liaisons. It is all rather rackety, and in the first half of the novel one feels the characters are driven more by sensuality than by anything deeper, with emotions only superficially engaged. But in the end they do become more deeply involved emotionally; some psychological complexities then emerge (especially for Helena and Calypso) and the reader's sympathies slowly become engaged with them. Most of the story is told as a war-time narrative; but at the end of some chapters we move on forty years or so, when those who are then still alive are converging for Max's funeral and look back on those years; so we learn something about what has happened to them since.

Some of the characters come more alive than others in the book. Especially successful, I think, is the portrait of Uncle Richard, for the most part just avoiding caricature. Calypso, the eldest of the cousins, and Sophy, the youngest, have some personality, as do Max and Monika; several other characters are not rounded out at all. All of them talk in short laconic sentences (the greater part of the book consists of dialogue), and only Richard, Max and Monika have a way of speaking which is in any way distinctive.

There is humour in this book and pathos; it shows that the intensity of war-time life brought its pleasures as well as its sorrows. It is a good read, but I think it lacks the subtlety of a great novel.