The Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen

'He dared not decide whether her eyes, with their misted askance look, were those of the victim or of the femme fatale.'

Stella Rodney lives on the top floor of a house on Weymouth Street near Regent's Park.  Working in a secret branch of government during World War II she is skilled at living a veiled existence both in her public and private lives.  Despite the fact that details surrounding her divorce from Victor have been misconstrued, Stella leaves the past behind and moves forward with strength and confidence to live independently.

One evening she has a visit from a man named Harrison who delivers a bombshell.  Telling Stella that her lover, Robert, is a spy for Nazi Germany, he offers to withhold the information in return for a sexual relationship with her.  So begins the unraveling of what is true, what is false and deciding which man is being deceitful.  Meanwhile her son, Roderick, serving in the Army, learns that he is to inherit the family home in Ireland (mirroring Elizabeth's inheritance of Bowen's Court).  Feeling he needs the blessing of Cousin Francis's widow, Nettie, he travels to a home for the aged and insane where he ends up discovering some unsettling news about his father.  But is the narrator reliable?

While this book has been described as Bowen's 'war novel' the reader is acutely aware that people have the ability to wreak as much havoc with lies as with bombs.  Even something as benign as a visit to Holme Dene, Robert's crumbling family estate, is cloaked in secrecy as he and Stella keep the fact that they are a couple secret from relatives.  Colder surroundings you would be hard pressed to find as the inhabitants even jealously guard their butter rations at mealtime.   

Bowen's descriptions of London during the war are both life affirming...

'The very soil of the city at this time seemed to generate more strength: in parks the outsize dahlias, velvet and stretched out perfect against the sun blazoned out the idea of the finest hour.'

...and chilling...

'You dared not envisage sleep.  Apathetic, the injured and dying in the hospitals watched light change on walls which might fall tonight  Those rendered homeless sat where they had been sent; or, worse, with the obstinacy of animals retraced their steps to look for what was no longer there.'

But while other novels from this era are full of people scurrying for shelter during air raids, there seems to be a more relaxed feeling about it all in this novel.  At one point near the end of the book, Stella receives a visitor as the guns are blaring in the distance only causing a slight delay in her conversation.  Defiantly perhaps, she has taken yet another top floor flat at a time when others are living half of their lives underground.

There is a backdrop storyline involving Louie Lewis who shares a flat on Chilcombe Street with Connie.  They also offer an opportunity for Bowen to expose social and class distinctions, of which she was very much aware, as the ladies share a bed with noisy springs, work in a factory and wear gloves with grimy seams.   More secrets permeate their storyline and as skillfully as one could imagine, Bowen brings these characters together in one of the most unforgettable stories I will ever read.

To anyone who is still unaware of this author's talent, yes there are times when Bowen's richly layered passages full of observations slow you down and make you work but I beg of you, do not shy away!  She is sublime, a genius, a doyenne, and with this book has taken the crown as my absolute favourite author.      

The Shooting Party by Isabel Colegate

My edition of this book comes with a keenly-observed introduction by Julian Fellowes.  The copyright is from 2007, and while he mentions Gosford Park, I wonder if he had any idea that a future project would eclipse its fame.  The 'upstairs/downstairs' storyline has always held massive appeal so for anyone who hasn't had their fill over the past couple of years of Downton Abbey get yourself a copy of The Shooting Party.

Set in Oxfordshire on the estate of Sir Randolph Nettleby, Baronet, the annual shooting party is about to take place during the autumn of 1913.  Gaslight fills the spacious rooms and the aromas of tobacco and perfume meld as the country house fills with guests from across the country and Europe.  Meanwhile in the outbuildings, stables, gamekeeper's cottage, gun room and kitchen, there is a flurry of activity as the staff work rigourously to ensure that everything runs smoothly.  The claret is ready to be poured when needed, there is cake ready to be sliced at a whim and while out on a shoot a gentleman need not take his eyes off of the fleeing birds as a freshly-loaded rifle is placed into his outstretched hand by his loader.

While this isn't Downton Abbey who could blame me for making comparisons?  At a dinner party where the guests are feasting on lobster vol-au-vents and drinking champagne, I laughed when young Cicely displays a playful wit. 

  "'Oh, but the Walker Kerrs are perfectly well connected too.  Mr Walker Kerr was a son of Lord Craven.  He was killed in the most ghastly circumstances in Africa.'
  'How terrible.  What sort of circumstances?'
  'He was eaten.  By a huge black Zulu.'
  'Oh really, Cicely,' Ida who was on the other side of the table had caught her daughter's last remark.  'You are naughty.  It was nothing of the kind.  He was killed in a perfectly straightforward manner in the Zulu wars.'
  'Exactly,' said Cicely, undaunted.  'In a perfectly straightforward manner.  For a Zulu.'"

A conversation which could easily have taken place amongst the Granthams at table.  Although, I'm still trying to decide whether the Dowager Countess would favour the lines of Ida or Cicely.  I digress.

Isabel Colegate examines the etiquette of the aristocracy in every single gesture from the studs worn in a man's shirt to the decision to begin an affair.  And the realization to some that none of it really matters.  The Great War is looming and among the staff downstairs there is the hope that it will be an equalizer, a chance to break free from their legacy of servitude.  A tragedy during the shoot brings into focus the concept of gentlemanly behaviour for Sir Randolph and some of his guests.  For one guest in particular though the incident is barely worth noting, an act that firmly places Cicely on the side of those less fortunate than herself.

The only thing that deflected some joy for me in the reading of this book is that there are so many characters introduced in the early stages of the story.  I resorted to making a quasi-family tree/guest list on a sheet of paper to keep everyone straight.  Other than that tiny distraction this is a brilliant novella and one I will be returning to time and again when I need a fix of the quintessential 'upstairs/downstairs' story set during the Edwardian era.  Thanks once again to Book Snob for recommending it to anyone who would listen.  She was right!