War Paint [Paperback]

Tom Wakefield (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 1994

It is 1942, and the sleepy English village of Padmore has been hit with a bomb in the shape of the new schoolteacher, Kay Roper. Forthright, eccentric, her face made up in "glorious Technicolour," Miss Roper has the villagers in thrall. Her girls worship the ground she walks on, the women hang on her every word, and the men languish in the trail of her Parisian perfume. But questions surround her: Why does a well-bred woman have an ointment for crabs at the ready when a colleague runs screaming from the school toilets? How can she breed sexual revolution yet never be seen to practice it? Why does she rail against "the gangrene of fascism" yet fraternize with the Italians in the local POW camp? These paradoxes, so tantalizing and liberating for the inhabitants of Padmore, unravel years later to reveal that Kay Roper had more secrets than anyone dreamed. Selected as one of the Books of the Year by London's Daily Telegraph, War Paint is a compelling, compassionate, and refreshingly witty novel centered around one of the most unforgettable characters to emerge in recent fiction.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Heavily made-up, flaunting "long, dangling purple ear-rings" and liberally doused with "Soir de Paris" perfume, eccentric, exuberant schoolteacher Kay Roper arrives in the English mining village of Padmore in the early 1940s. Exceptionally outspoken about a number of taboo subjects (including women's rights, personal hygiene and sexuality), the vivacious and enterprising Kay brings a reverence for sensuality and beauty that both shocks and enchants the working-class residents of a town made especially bleak by the austerities and privations of wartime. Years later, Kay's death in a road accident unleashes a flood of interlocking recollections from the three people--her favorite student, her would-be lover and the secondary school's headmistress--whose lives she most influenced. With her death also comes the revelation of the beloved schoolteacher's most deeply guarded secret--one that makes Wakefield's ( Lot's Wife ) new novel much more than just a nostalgic paean to an opinionated educator. Though Kay's enlightened utterances occasionally take on a preachy, overly prescient tone, for the most part her story is a playful and thought-provoking examination of what it means to be a woman.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Set in an English mining village in 1942, this novel is a captivating puzzle, compelling as much for its well-researched details of everyday working-class life during World War II as for its engagingly wrought characters. The appearanceamid the town's dully overall-clad denizensof Miss Kay Roper, a dazzling flamingo of a school teacher in brightly colored skirts, makeup, and purple earrings, awakens the villagers from their dreary routines of war work and deprivation. She elicits the adoration of her schoolgirls, their families, and her neighbors alike and excites the imagination of all around her. Paradox and mystery, however, surround this fascinating character and the three who tell of her. Ultimately, her story is more than a mystery that must be solved over the course of decades. It is a meditation on the nature of passion, which Miss Roper says is selfish, and love, which she says is not. An enthralling novel that moves beyond mere entertainment. Whitney Scott --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (May 15, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312287321
• ISBN-13: 978-0312287320
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,585,909 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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