Lizzie's Wish

Review also includes:

Polly’s March, Linda Newbery, 176pp, ‎978-0746060315

Josie Under Fire, Ann Turnbull, 176pp, ‎978-0794523350

‘The Historical House’ series provides the opportunity for three highly acclaimed writers, Geras, Newbery and Turnbull, to explore the life of a London house and its inhabitants from 1857 to 1941. There are three main focal points in the texts: the house’s physical changes through the years, meticulous and informative details about domestic life, ethos and culture and, finally, the developing roles and expectations of women at critical periods in history.

Crucially, the writers have maintained authorial independence, giving them a clarity of voice and diversity of style, but the books are linked by the motif of the walnut tree and by the challenges which their female protagonists have to face.

Lizzie’s Wish by Adèle Geras is a deceptively simple story with clear moral delineations. Women’s impotence in a male-dominated society is emphasised by the plight of Lizzie’s mother under the harsh dominance of her new husband and the insistence that girls should not be educated, thus denying Lizzie’s ambition to be a gardener and her cousin Clara’s to follow in the footsteps of Florence Nightingale.

The birth of her brother ignites complex emotions – she loves him but is aware he will have freedoms denied to her. When his life is saved by Clara and Lizzie is able to assert her authority over the planting of the walnut tree, Geras gives us the first glimmers of social change – and the physical link for the three books.

In Polly’s March, Linda Newbery’s contribution, the house is now three flats. One has been vacated by Polly’s friend and, lonely, she strikes up a friendship with the new occupants, Edith and Violet, suffragettes. She becomes involved in their cause through a mix of excitement generated by secrecy, a sense of injustice and a naive idealism which is soon tempered by Edith’s brutal treatment in prison and her father’s discovery of her presence on a march.

The thorny issue of suffrage as freedom from the drudgery endured by working-class women or as personal political triumph for the wealthy is raised but resolved through an understanding of the universality of its worth.

The story ends with war and Josie Under Fire begins with the privations and dangers of 1941. Spurned by friends, family and neighbours because her brother Ted is a conscientious objector, Josie is mercilessly bullied at school. When sent to live with her cousin Edith, Josie, terrified of being friendless again, herself becomes a reluctant bully, taunting Alice, the class misfit.

Edith Rutherford is reintroduced as Josie’s confidante – never criticising, just acting as a sounding board for her feelings and a model of community care as an ARP.

When Josie and Edith are called to serve their community after a devastating air-raid they both recognise that personal considerations must be subsumed to the welfare of the whole community. Josie realises that although she will return to the taunts of her peers, her newfound strength will help her to deal with the problems she will face.