Graham Swift’s latest book has been very widely reviewed so I’ll keep my thoughts about Mothering Sunday brief. Everybody seems to love it, and I think that is because it is a clever inversion of Upstairs Downstairs clichés. Though Beechwood’s housemaid Jane Fairchild is a foundling with no mother to visit on Mothering Sunday 1924, and her lover Paul Sheringham is the wealthy heir to the Niven Estate, Jane is never a victim.
While it’s true that money changed hands when their affair began, and there are definitely differences of power and status between them, over seven years it has merged into friendship. The story takes place on what will be their last day because Paul is getting married, but it’s also when Britain is on the cusp of change: the tragedy of WW1 has altered assumptions that people ‘in service’ will always be there to maintain the insouciant lives of the wealthy; women are about to get the vote; and women are going to enjoy much better employment opportunities. Jane’s literacy – a lucky accident arising from her unknown mother’s choice of orphanage – is the key to opportunities that she has the initiative to grasp. She becomes a writer.
The story is told from her point-of-view, narrating the glorious sunny day that changes her life forever, looking back on her long life as the 1900s roll over towards the year 2000. We discover the point-of-view of other characters through the filter of Jane’s beliefs about people, social class and events, and though we may at times wonder if in her youth she entertained some naïvely faint hopes, they are balanced by the comfortable reflections of her old age.
The narration by Eve Webster is pitch perfect, capturing the freshness of Jane’s youth, the sensuousness of the young people, and the canny humour of Jane’s later years as – when quizzed about autobiographical events by nosy interviewers at writers’ festivals – she keeps her secrets to herself.
Only 3 CDs in length as an audio book, and under 200 pages in print, Mothering Sunday shows Swift using the form of the novella to meditate on the nature of truth in fiction. And if there’s any moral to the story, it’s that – in our tell-all society – there is pleasure and integrity in keeping some memories private.
Author: Graham Swift
Title: Mothering Sunday
Publisher: Bolinda Audio, 2016
ISBN: 9781489390714
Source: Kingston Library, recommended by Simon from Stuck in a Book.
Available from Fishpond: Mothering Sunday
ANZ LitLovers LitBlog 
This was one of my favourite reads last year. When I posted about it in May (alongside some other novels I was reading at the time) I was more enthusiastic about the first half than the second – but still a moving, deeply felt piece of fiction. Here’s a link if you don’t mind my including it here:
http://tredynasdays.co.uk/2016/05/pessoa-tabucchi-swift/
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By: Tredynas Days on January 20, 2017
at 12:36 am
Did you like this?
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By: Guy Savage on January 20, 2017
at 2:51 am
Absolutely!!
(It was hard not to gush, but obviously I must have succeeded in that).
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By: Lisa Hill on January 20, 2017
at 10:28 am
I read his book: The Sweet Shop owner and liked it a lot.
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By: Guy Savage on January 22, 2017
at 8:41 am
I’ve got that one. I found a battered old copy in an op-shop. I must read it soon:)
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By: Lisa Hill on January 22, 2017
at 9:44 am
sounds as though it’s along the same lines: a long look back at life during the course of one day
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By: Guy Savage on January 22, 2017
at 9:54 am
Does he explore class issues too in that one?
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By: Lisa Hill on January 22, 2017
at 10:07 am
It’s been a long time and I don’t honestly remember–at least it doesn’t stand out in my memory
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By: Guy Savage on January 22, 2017
at 10:45 am
Well, that’s the prod I need: I’ll read and review it and then you’ll remember! That’s what I love about reading reviews of books I read a while ago, they bring back the experience of reading them as if fresh in the mind:)
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By: Lisa Hill on January 22, 2017
at 10:51 am
Exactly
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By: Guy Savage on January 22, 2017
at 11:29 am
Im envious that you could get this on audio – it’s not in our library system yet but I have another of his books to listen to “Tomorrow”
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By: BookerTalk on January 20, 2017
at 9:07 am
Don’t you just love your local library! I have read the book but listening to it would be better, not that I would be good at that. I can see Mothering Sunday as a film.
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By: Meg on January 20, 2017
at 6:41 pm
Oh yes, but how hard it would be to depict the ageing!
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By: Lisa Hill on January 20, 2017
at 7:01 pm
I’m listening to a fair bit of audio books at the moment. This may be an option when I am trying to work out what’s next.
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By: Marg on January 24, 2017
at 10:27 pm
Hi Marg, great to hear from you:) I’ve been enjoying the posts on your blog xo
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By: Lisa Hill on January 24, 2017
at 10:30 pm
[…] Waterland, (1983) The Light of Day (2003), and more recently Mothering Sunday (2016) (see my review). What could go […]
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By: Tomorrow, by Graham Swift | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on April 1, 2017
at 11:48 am
[…] For other takes on Mothering Sunday, please see Brona’s review and Lisa’s review. […]
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By: ‘Mothering Sunday: A Romance’ by Graham Swift – Reading Matters on May 28, 2022
at 8:32 pm