A London Child of the 1870s [Paperback]

Mary Hughes was born Mary Vivian Thomas in October 1866, and in 1870 she and her parents and four older brothers moved to a house in Canonbury, north London, where they lived for nine years. They were a moderately well-off family; they did not feel themselves rich, though they had a couple of servants.

Hughes tells the story of those years with wit and interest. She's a great story-teller, and has a naturally cheerful outlook; coupled with happy memories that would have been enough to make this an entertaining book. But she is also sharp and insightful, and has strong powers of observation. The result is a fascinating view of a child's life one hundred and thirty years ago. I love history for all sorts of reasons, but I got more pleasure from this book (and its sequels) than from many history texts I've read, because at the end of it I felt I not only knew and liked Mary Thomas, but I knew what it felt like to be a child in Victorian London.

Hughes talks about every little detail: wooden playing blocks, window-shopping, walking in the neighbourhood, visiting cousins in Cornwall, learning Latin at home, favourite books, religious aunts, children's games, and much more. It's an enchanting read.

The book is also strong in feeling. There are tragic deaths in the book, and I found these more affecting than any fiction, feeling as I did that the family were now friends of mine.

Highly recommended.

An autobiography of Molly Hughes who grows up in 1870s north London. Family life and early schooldays. Lots of period detail about London life and a fascinating read. The first of a series (later books deal with her education at North London Collegiate School, her training as a teacher in the very early days of teacher training colleges, her marriage, and her work as an inspector of schools. The books were first published by Oxford University Press in the 1930s and 40s, appearing as very popular OUP paperbacks in the 1980s. The paperbacks frequently appear in the secondhand market. Highly recommended.

One of the greatest joys of reading is being able to experience people, places and times that are so alien to our every day modern lives that our understanding of life itself is broadened. Molly Hughes, with her wit, intelligence and sensitivity, guides the reader from the age of jet planes, instant communications and massive creature comforts into a very different time and zeitgeist. It would be patronizing to call the latter part of the 19th century as a "simpler age." It only seems that way to us, who take great pride in what we deem our busy and complicated lives. But Molly's life was busy and complicated, too, and full of the same joys and pains common to life in any age, in any circumstance.

I don't believe this book -- the series, collectively titled "A London Family 1870-1900" -- has been contaminated by Hollywood's eternal attempts to translate literature into visual (and extremely narrow) presentations. That is a blessing. When we read (as opposed to viewing), we populate the story with creatures from our imaginations, created along the lines of the author's description. Incidents recounted by the author remind us of family stories or tales from other books and memories of people we have known and these color and enrich our experience of the story at hand. Molly was blessed with a happy nature and deeply influenced by a mother who was an unfailing optimist. Throughout the trials of her life we see what an advantage this environment of love and optimism gives her in terms of strength of character.

As a child, her entertainments were reading, playing the piano, dancing, sketching, walking and hiking, and visiting. "Long afternoons I spent in my room alone," she writes, "while the boys were at school. Drawing and painting took most of the time, but there was also the curious occupation of cutting perforated cardboard, sticking them on a piece of couloured ribbon, and inflicting them on some aunts as a Bible bookmark...Music I made for myself with broken nibs stuck into the edge of my table. The tinkle was cheering but no tune could I achieve..."

Her delight in visiting her aunt's country home in Cornwall ("With the last curve of the drive the house came in sight, facing a large lawn, bordered by wooded banks and dotted with huge elms," the train trip across England ("we used to hail Exeter as being 'almost there'") and the attending adventures ("The difficulty on arriving from London was to know where to begin enjoying oneself") are related with a remembrance of childhood wonder. Looking at the "delights" of modern life -- computer games, television, movies, etc. -- it's hard to imagine that adults in the future will have similar memories to warm their days. And to press on with the point, it becomes a bit frightening to imagine a similar description of life in another 100 years if the present is any indication of the future!

This book can take you back in time to a life that seems more intense because of a lack of modern amenities and distractions. Try to forget what you know and read with the intent of experiencing life with oil lamps and horse-drawn transportation "But in 1878 the traffic was laughably simple, and the only likelihood of an accident was a horse slipping on a wet road," Christmas trees lit by candles and food preparation without the benefit of refrigeration. Imagine icy winters by the fire ("the November of 1879 was cold and dark with fogs far worse than ever happen now," and hot summers without air conditioning. And through it all, you'll find the same experiences of love and loss we all know, whatever our individual circumstance.

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