Family circle

by Mary Hocking

As a child, Flora (nicknamed 'Pug') used often to visit the Routh family at Lewes. She returns as a young woman, to help the parents with their daughter, Margaret, who has had a nervous breakdown mysteriously linked with Katmandu, and is being treated by the local doctor. Margaret's brother Timothy turns up unexpectedly from her sister Constance is the mainstay of the household. But it is their parents on whom Pug's attention is most often fixed. They had been figures of great power and glory to her as a Mr. Routh is now a radio personality, a man up to his elbows in countless good causes, whose winning charm is steadied by his wife's good sense, her equal devotion to him and to her multifarious public duties. Gradually, though, Pug begins to see through the façade of this perfect couple to the characters beneath it. When the family becomes involved in a scandal, the utter self-deception of Mr. Routh and the almost sublime self-centredness of his wife are at last mercilessly exposed.

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1972

About the author

Born in in London in 1921, Mary was educated at Haberdashers’ Aske’s Girls School, Acton. During the Second World War she served in the Women’s Royal Naval Service (Wrens) attached to the Fleet Air Arm Meteorology branch and then briefly with the Signal Section in Plymouth.

Writing was in her blood. Juggling her work as a local government officer in Middlesex Education Department with writing, at first short stories for magazines and pieces for The Times Educational Supplement, she then had her first book, The Winter City, published in 1961.

The book was a success and enabled Mary to relinquish her full time occupation to devote her time to writing. Even so, when she came to her beloved Lewes in 1961, she still took a part-time appointment, as a secretary, with the East Sussex Educational Psychology department.

Long before family sagas had become cult viewing, she had embarked upon the ‘Fairley Family’ trilogy, Good Daughters, Indifferent Heroes, and Welcome Strangers, books which give her readers a faithful, realistic and uncompromising portrayal of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary times, between the years of 1933 and 1946.

For many years she was an active member of the ‘Monday Lit’, a Lewes-based group which brought in current writers and poets to speak about their work. Equally, she was an enthusiastic supporter of Lewes Little Theatre, where she found her role as ‘prompter’ the most satisfying, and worshipped at the town’s St Pancras RC Church.

* Source

Reviews

[belva hullp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Family Circle by Mary Hocking; (5*); (for my personal challenge: A Year of Elizabeth Goudge & Mary Hocking;

I loved this story of a young woman who returns to a family of friends that she, as a child growing up, thought nearly perfect. As she spends more time with them and helps to bring comfort and stability to the daughter who had a nervous breakdown, she comes to realize that there is no such thing as familial perfection.
I didn't want this one to end. Very, very good. Don't you just love Mary Hocking?

[belva hullp · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this story of a young woman who returns to a family of friends that she, as a child growing up, thought nearly perfect. As she spends more time with them and helps to bring comfort and stability to the daughter who had a nervous breakdown, she comes to realize that there is no such thing as familial perfection.
I didn't want this one to end. Very, very good. Don't you just love Mary Hocking?

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Family Circle is the earliest of Mary Hocking’s books that I have read, and was another of the books included in my Librarything Virago secret Santa parcel from Karen. Published in 1972, and I can only presume therefore written at around that time, the narrative is set firmly in that era. Here we have a Riley Elf compared favourably to Austin 1100s, girls in midi jackets, hippies, references to the CND movement, James Callaghan and talk of immigration.

As a child Flora (saddled with nickname Pug) often visited the Routh family in Lewes, Sussex. To the young Pug the Rouths were figures of great glory, very assured, the perfect family, who allowed their children; Constance, Margaret and Timothy great freedoms. Now as a young woman, recently finished with university, Flora returns to help care for the Rouths youngest daughter, who it appears has had some kind of breakdown which is mysteriously linked with Katmandu, despite her never having been there.

Full review: https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2015/...