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The Camomile Lawn
 
 

The Camomile Lawn [Kindle Edition]

Mary Wesley
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)

Print List Price: £8.99
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Product Description

Review

'Told with elegance and asperity by the superb Anna Massey' (Sunday Telegraph )

'Anna Massey could read the telephone directory and I would listen. When she's reading a writer of the quality of Mary Wesley, it becomes a real pleasure.'

(Oxford Times )

Book Description

A vivid and lively picture of wartime London and Cornwall as seen through the eyes of five cousins.

Product details

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 482 KB
  • Print Length: 338 pages
  • Page Numbers Source ISBN: 014012392X
  • Publisher: Vintage Digital; New Ed edition (31 Mar 2012)
  • Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B007BLOCFU
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • X-Ray: Not Enabled
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #10,728 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
What was living through the Second World War like? Mary Wesley takes us through the relationships and experiences of young people caught up in the 'great events' but here we get the personal, feeling aspects. Told with subtle humor and acceptance of the human condition. A fine and original master of the English language as practiced by an older woman writer who can look back on the whole of life and know what it all comes down to. This she does well as a kind of female philosopher of feeling, nothing like the thinking males tend to do. This will warm your heart and ask you gently, just how are you doing with your life?
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars The intensity of life in war-time. 20 Jun 2006
By Ralph Blumenau TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The book opens on the very eve of the Second World War, with five cousins on holiday at the Cornish home of their Aunt Helena and Uncle Richard (all upper middle class). Four of them (two young women, two young men) are aged 19 or 20, the fifth is Sophy who is just ten. There are also the twin sons of the local rector, who has also taken in a Jewish refugee couple, Max and Monika, from Austria. The novel traces the lives principally of these eleven characters during the war, much of it set in London. Under the intensity of life in war-time, the young people lose any conventional inhibitions they might possibly have had under other circumstances. (I say `possibly', because uninhibited behaviour had been the mark of certain young socialites in the 1920s). One can hardly keep track of the sexual permutations and combinations between them. Even middle-aged Uncle Richard and Aunt Helena have unorthodox liaisons. It is all rather rackety, and in the first half of the novel one feels the characters are driven more by sensuality than by anything deeper, with emotions only superficially engaged. But in the end they do become more deeply involved emotionally; some psychological complexities then emerge (especially for Helena and Calypso) and the reader's sympathies slowly become engaged with them. Most of the story is told as a war-time narrative; but at the end of some chapters we move on forty years or so, when those who are then still alive are converging for Max's funeral and look back on those years; so we learn something about what has happened to them since.

Some of the characters come more alive than others in the book. Especially successful, I think, is the portrait of Uncle Richard, for the most part just avoiding caricature. Calypso, the eldest of the cousins, and Sophy, the youngest, have some personality, as do Max and Monika; some other characters are not rounded out at all. All of them talk in short laconic sentences (the greater part of the book consists of dialogue), and only Richard, Max and Monika have a way of speaking which is in any way distinctive.

There is humour in this book and pathos; it shows that the intensity of war-time life brought its pleasures as well as its sorrows. It is a good read, but I think it lacks the subtlety of a great novel.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars A quick and easy but enjoyable read 18 Oct 2007
By Alianor
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This novel, which was made into a TV miniseries in the early 1990s, incorporates many themes and elements of plot which reappear in other Mary Wesley novels: unconventional relationships, heroines with names derived from ancient mythology, twins and cousins, motherhood, love arriving late in life, and the life-changing experience of living through the Second World War on the home front. It's a quick and easy read, involving but not too taxing, with plot developments which may occasionally strain credulity but characters who are fully-fleshed, unconventional and ready to seize whatever opportunities their lives bring.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Stands the test of time
I remember watching the televised version of 'The Camomile Lawn' and enjoying it very much so I was pleased to see that it was a credible adaptation of the book. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Witchy-wife Cate
4.0 out of 5 stars This could have been a true story
I liked the detail of the characters. Very descriptive but not in a boring way.
Tended to go on a little towards the end.
Published 1 month ago by Glenys Wood
4.0 out of 5 stars Oh What a Lovely War!
'The Camomile Lawn' opens on the eve of World War II, with five cousins gathering at the home of their Uncle Richard (a one-legged veteran of World War I) and his rich wife Aunt... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Kate Hopkins
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent novel
Interesting characters and situations. Fascinating narrative structure as the characters look back over 40 years to when they were young and experiencing life and love in the WW2... Read more
Published 3 months ago by A. J. Frend
5.0 out of 5 stars The Camomile Lawn
I had watched to series on T.V. I thought that it would be nice to read the book . I live in Cornwall and can relate to some of the places named. I like Mary Wesley's book anyway.
Published 6 months ago by Susan Carpenter
5.0 out of 5 stars Old favorite now purchased for my Kindle
This is a saga about an extended family, set during the second world war. It tells how each of them cope and has many twists and turns and unexpected outcomes.
Published 6 months ago by christie
4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel which was funny in parts and also outrageous as the story began just pre second world war era and ended fifty years later. Read more
Published 12 months ago by pollyanna
4.0 out of 5 stars Easy Read
What an easy read and, dare I say, page turner. This book is set before, during and after WWII and follows the lives of a few very close cousins. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Ella Pea
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Wesley
I have read all of Mary Wesley's books and love them.
The Camomile lawn was the one that put me on to her, I watched the TV mini and decided I wanted to read the book. Read more
Published 15 months ago by S. MacKinnon
5.0 out of 5 stars The Camomile Lawn - Book by Mary Wesley
I thought this book was really good and made the video seen on the television far easier to understand.
Published on 8 May 2011 by Rickie
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