In a Summer Season by Elizabeth Taylor

Title In a Summer Season 

Author Elizabeth Taylor

Genre Modern Classic (Virago)

Location Late 1950s London Suburb

The main players

Kate – Widowed mother of two remarried just a year to a man ten years her junior.  Kate is middle aged and worried about appearing as mutton dressed as lamb, she is struggling to fit in with her old world.

Dermot:-  The younger man.  We learn early on that Dermot finds it difficult to hold down a job, Kates friends aren’t quite sure what to think of him, is he only after the money that Alan left her?  Even his mother is not so quietly disappointed in him!

Tom: Kate and late Alans eldest he’s 22.  Alan works in the factory with his grandfather. Tom feels trapped, he feels he has no choice in his professional life so makes up for it in his personal life with a string of girlfriends.

Louise: Is 16, home for the summer from boarding school, not quite sure where she belongs

Ethel:  Kates elderly ex suffragette aunt.  Ethel amuses herself by appearing not to listen at doors but recalling those conversations very clearly in correspondence to her friend. 

Other notable characters include Mrs Meacock, Edwina, the young curate, Charles and Araminta.

Favourite Quotes

• Ethel had a way of bending her head at closed doors not listening, as she told herself, but ascertaining.

• Kate was always, like most mothers, wasting words and knowing that she wasted them.

• “It can’t be anything but painful, having daughters” she thought, closing the door. “Wanting so much for them, and dreading so much, yet unable to ensure or prevent a thing.  One is quite useless".

Review

We learn the basics in the story early on that Kate is quite well off, her husband is much younger than her and its quite the opinion that the feckless Dermot only married her for her money.  

The widower of Dorothea Kate’s best friend is coming home after working away for several years, he brings with him his daughter, Kate’s goddaughter Araminta no longer the little girl they all remember.

That summer will change every one of their life’s forever.  When we meet the characters they all have different challenges, yet these challenges all boil down to the same problem where do they fit in during their changing season in life?  Certainly, by the end of the summer things will be much clearer.

The stories cover from Louisa’s adolescent puppy love, Kates middle age “crisis”, Ethel elderly and trying to adjust to living with her niece and her new husband.  Even the housekeeper is questioning her life whether she should she continue writing her book or disappear into the sunset to bake pineapple upside down cake for someone who may appreciate it?

This is the third Elizabeth Taylor I have read, if you’re wanting a book with a fast paced storyline this is not for you.  In a Summer Season is a window into the middle-class life style in the late 1950s.  A little fictional slice of social history of boarding schools, popping into London on the train, housekeepers and long sunny afternoons spent in large garden.  Sublime.  The characters are well written and develop well throughout even her more minor characters are fantastic I just adored Aunt Ethel and Mrs Meacock, the humour was often subtle but so well written.

No spoilers here but if you’ve ever read any of Elizabeth Taylors books, you’ll understand her endings are always something else.