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A Woman of My Age
Elizabeth and Richard, 18 years married, have come to Morocco on holiday. As the adventures and disasters of their travels unfold, so too does Elizabeth's account of the desert her life has become. The author's book "Circles of Deceit" was shortlisted for the 1987 Booker Prize.
174 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1967
14 people are currently reading
196 people want to read
About the author
Nina Bawden
62 books92 followersNina Bawden was a popular British novelist and children's writer. Her mother was a teacher and her father a marine.
When World War II broke out she spent the school holidays at a farm in Shropshire along with her mother and her brothers, but lived in Aberdare, Wales, during term time.
Bawden attended Somerville College, Oxford, where she gained a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.
Her novels include Carrie's War, Peppermint Pig, and The Witch's Daughter.
A number of her works have been dramatised by BBC Children's television, and many have been translated into various languages. In 2002 she was badly injured in the Potters Bar rail crash, and her husband Austen Kark was killed.
Bawden passed away at her home in London on 22 August 2012.
When World War II broke out she spent the school holidays at a farm in Shropshire along with her mother and her brothers, but lived in Aberdare, Wales, during term time.
Bawden attended Somerville College, Oxford, where she gained a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.
Her novels include Carrie's War, Peppermint Pig, and The Witch's Daughter.
A number of her works have been dramatised by BBC Children's television, and many have been translated into various languages. In 2002 she was badly injured in the Potters Bar rail crash, and her husband Austen Kark was killed.
Bawden passed away at her home in London on 22 August 2012.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
July 14, 2015
"Middle age: an urge to destroy because you cannot create any more."
"It was as if he hadn't really wanted freedom, only to assert his right to be free if he chose."
Said of an escaped horse, but just as applicable to some of the human characters. And maybe to me, too.
Historical Fiction?
I suppose this is historical fiction, albeit of a very recent kind, given that it's set before and around the time I was born. I have a casual fondness for English novels set in that period, usually among the slightly struggling, introspective middle class intelligentsia (Iris Murdoch, Margaret Drabble, Lynne Reid Banks, Penelope Fitzgerald, Elizabeth Taylor, Barbara Pym). It's only just occurred to me that perhaps I'm trying to glimpse something of my parents' past (they're both still alive). I certainly see parallels in some of these novels. The really good ones still speak truth today.
This shows its age in a few ways. Some are rather charming, such as a metaphor on the first page, "other people are under-developed negatives, snapshots" and saying, with embarrassment, that an unmarried couple "were lovers". Others are more discomforting: gender roles in general, attitudes to casual domestic violence, a friend who fears her Jewish heritage may be discovered, and phrases like "Sometimes I dreamed of dark rapists in romantic situations". The ending would be improbable nowadays, too.
The History of a Marriage
This is the story of Richard and Elizabeth's travels in Morocco: a week or two in the mid 1960s. It's interspersed with backstory of their childhoods and the course of their marriage of nearly 20 years, including two sons. She's around 38, but describes herself as middle aged. They seem comfortable with low-level discomfort in their relationship. Settled. Settled for second-best, perhaps.
"Our feelings for each other rattle around like cards in a spinning tombola... we draw out a card, not always appropriate, for each occasion."
"When we were first married, we argued with vain, angry faces, insisting that we should be understood... Now we don't want to be understood. The truth is too painful."
Inevitably, their past, present and future turn out to be more troubling and complex than is initially apparent: deaths, betrayals, and disappointments all lurk, waiting for the triggers: travel, heat, friends new and old. Some of the consequences are a little predictable, others much less so. The overall effect is plausible (mostly), dramatic, traumatic.
Introspection
Elizabeth is the narrator - to the reader and to herself: she sometimes thinks of herself in the third person, imagining how others describe her, as "a way of giving myself some kind of shape. Or helping me to see myself." She was raised by two strong women (aunts), in a fiercely political home (Labour), got into Oxford, but dropped out to marry, and has lacked confidence ever since.
For all her self-analysis, she isn't always honest to herself, which makes her situation all the more poignant: "Nothing moved in me. Apart from a superficial, tactile pleasantness, I felt nothing at all." But not always: "I had only pretended I didn't know... a shabby mischance had... knocked down the precarious walls of my prison."
At times, she's trying to be someone she's not, but she doesn't even know quite who that is. I can relate to that.
Escape?
We all need escape at times. a hobby, a holiday, friendships, an affair. There are no answers here, unfortunately.
Quotes
Some of these are agonising:
* "You know other people only as witnesses to your own situation: when they reflect your own fears and desires."
* Looking in the mirror, "I remain, as I did then [when younger] cloudy, fading, sadly out of focus. I do not know myself, only my own situation."
* "I put out my hand. He took it and, after a second, handed it back to me like a discarded handkerchief."
* "Richard has great charm when he chooses to exert it... He bestowed his charm upon them [her aunts] like a beautiful and unexpected present: since they were old, the giving of it flattered him, not them."
* A younger partner was "too young to be a discarded husband... too old to be a son".
* We "sat silent, smoking to comfort our inferiority".
* "I shrank from his perfection... grateful for the darkness."
* "He discussed his symptoms with the self-absorbed vehemence of a young man to whom pain is a single, shocking insult, not feared as a forerunner of something worse."
* "I fell into deceit quite easily... The change was not so much in him, as in the way I saw him."
* "a gloomily devoted mother."
* "This is what a marriage should be... two people comforting each other in the dark. There's no need for love in the daylight."
* "Duty is a much easier conception" than love.
* "He began to cry. It seemed like a strategy."
contrasted with
"I wanted to weep but I felt nothing."
"It was as if he hadn't really wanted freedom, only to assert his right to be free if he chose."
Said of an escaped horse, but just as applicable to some of the human characters. And maybe to me, too.
Historical Fiction?
I suppose this is historical fiction, albeit of a very recent kind, given that it's set before and around the time I was born. I have a casual fondness for English novels set in that period, usually among the slightly struggling, introspective middle class intelligentsia (Iris Murdoch, Margaret Drabble, Lynne Reid Banks, Penelope Fitzgerald, Elizabeth Taylor, Barbara Pym). It's only just occurred to me that perhaps I'm trying to glimpse something of my parents' past (they're both still alive). I certainly see parallels in some of these novels. The really good ones still speak truth today.
This shows its age in a few ways. Some are rather charming, such as a metaphor on the first page, "other people are under-developed negatives, snapshots" and saying, with embarrassment, that an unmarried couple "were lovers". Others are more discomforting: gender roles in general, attitudes to casual domestic violence, a friend who fears her Jewish heritage may be discovered, and phrases like "Sometimes I dreamed of dark rapists in romantic situations". The ending would be improbable nowadays, too.
The History of a Marriage
This is the story of Richard and Elizabeth's travels in Morocco: a week or two in the mid 1960s. It's interspersed with backstory of their childhoods and the course of their marriage of nearly 20 years, including two sons. She's around 38, but describes herself as middle aged. They seem comfortable with low-level discomfort in their relationship. Settled. Settled for second-best, perhaps.
"Our feelings for each other rattle around like cards in a spinning tombola... we draw out a card, not always appropriate, for each occasion."
"When we were first married, we argued with vain, angry faces, insisting that we should be understood... Now we don't want to be understood. The truth is too painful."
Inevitably, their past, present and future turn out to be more troubling and complex than is initially apparent: deaths, betrayals, and disappointments all lurk, waiting for the triggers: travel, heat, friends new and old. Some of the consequences are a little predictable, others much less so. The overall effect is plausible (mostly), dramatic, traumatic.
Introspection
Elizabeth is the narrator - to the reader and to herself: she sometimes thinks of herself in the third person, imagining how others describe her, as "a way of giving myself some kind of shape. Or helping me to see myself." She was raised by two strong women (aunts), in a fiercely political home (Labour), got into Oxford, but dropped out to marry, and has lacked confidence ever since.
For all her self-analysis, she isn't always honest to herself, which makes her situation all the more poignant: "Nothing moved in me. Apart from a superficial, tactile pleasantness, I felt nothing at all." But not always: "I had only pretended I didn't know... a shabby mischance had... knocked down the precarious walls of my prison."
At times, she's trying to be someone she's not, but she doesn't even know quite who that is. I can relate to that.
Escape?
We all need escape at times. a hobby, a holiday, friendships, an affair. There are no answers here, unfortunately.
Quotes
Some of these are agonising:
* "You know other people only as witnesses to your own situation: when they reflect your own fears and desires."
* Looking in the mirror, "I remain, as I did then [when younger] cloudy, fading, sadly out of focus. I do not know myself, only my own situation."
* "I put out my hand. He took it and, after a second, handed it back to me like a discarded handkerchief."
* "Richard has great charm when he chooses to exert it... He bestowed his charm upon them [her aunts] like a beautiful and unexpected present: since they were old, the giving of it flattered him, not them."
* A younger partner was "too young to be a discarded husband... too old to be a son".
* We "sat silent, smoking to comfort our inferiority".
* "I shrank from his perfection... grateful for the darkness."
* "He discussed his symptoms with the self-absorbed vehemence of a young man to whom pain is a single, shocking insult, not feared as a forerunner of something worse."
* "I fell into deceit quite easily... The change was not so much in him, as in the way I saw him."
* "a gloomily devoted mother."
* "This is what a marriage should be... two people comforting each other in the dark. There's no need for love in the daylight."
* "Duty is a much easier conception" than love.
* "He began to cry. It seemed like a strategy."
contrasted with
"I wanted to weep but I felt nothing."
June 18, 2013
Last month, Karen of Kaggsysbookishramblings and Simon of Stuck in a book had a read-a-long of Nina Bawden’s A Woman of my Age. I wanted to join in, and then a fellow librarything member sent me a copy of the book, but I have only just got around to reading it.
Nina Bawden’s Carrie’s War was one of my all-time favourite children’s books and I really enjoyed the couple of Bawden’s adult books I read last year. I find Bawden’s writing very engaging, her characters strong and believable their lives are fully explored and often portrayed with sharp humour – after reading The Devil by the Sea and A Grain of Truth I wanted to read all of Bawden’s novels for adults. I enjoyed ‘A woman of my age’ very much – although not quite as much as those two books I just mentioned, for me there were a few little odd things which jarred slightly.
“When I look in the mirror – not to see if the grey roots are beginning to show before the next tinting, but in the same way I used to look at myself when I was seventeen, at what, whom and why – I remain, as I did then, cloudy, fading, sadly out of focus. I do not know myself, only my own situation: I am Elizabeth Jourdelay, married to Richard, the mother of his two sons. I am, I am middle aged. This is an embarrassment that has come upon me suddenly, taking me by surprise so that I don’t really believe it. Looking in the mirror I see the wrinkles, but perhaps tomorrow they will be gone and my skin will be smooth again. Though wrinkles are not important. The important thing is that I am in the middle of my life and I feel as I did when I was adolescent, that I do not know where to go from here.
What of the time between? What have I done – become – during twenty long battling years? Is there no answer, no key?”
In ‘A Woman of my Age’ we meet Elizabeth – a woman of about 37 – who having been married for around eighteen years is no longer very interested in her husband and considers herself middle aged. Travelling in Morocco with her husband Richard, allows Elizabeth time to look back over her life, how is it she has ended up where she is? Brought up by two aunts who had worked for the suffrage movement and taught her to engage in politics, Elizabeth left university without taking her degree in order to marry Richard. Richard is a handsome, charming man, quite persuasive and prone to bursts of temper he is happiest with Elizabeth undertaking the traditional wife and mother role. There were times in her younger years when Elizabeth was frustrated by her life, yearning for a chance to work – however humbly – within the political arena – yet she finds herself sacrificing her ambitions for her family. Elizabeth’s view of herself and her relationship will surprise – maybe shock many modern readers –even shrugging off her husband hitting her during a particularly bad row.
In the searing heat of the Moroccan desert – Elizabeth and Richard meet two other couples. Flora is an old friend – particularly of Richard’s – Elizabeth hasn’t seen her for a number of years. Flora a woman of around 40 is travelling with her young lover Adam. The other couple are the Hobbs – a couple in their 60’s, Mrs Hobbs is good hearted friendly woman, very large and rather unwell, she and her husband are devoted to one another. Initially the Hobbs’ are a couple that Elizabeth and Richard smile at behind their backs, finding them slightly ridiculous – but Elizabeth quickly becomes genuinely fond of them. Sexually uninterested in her husband, resisting his advances when she can, Elizabeth is amazed to find herself an object of attraction to both Adam and Mr Hobbs – she is further surprised by her own reaction to them. As the group continue their journey across the desert –the sexual tensions that have built up have life changing consequences for almost everyone.
There is quite a twist in the ending of this novel- not something I saw coming, and certainly it wasn’t the ending that I would have chosen. I don’t want to give away too much – in case anyone else is thinking of reading it soon – but I suspect it is an ending which dismays many readers. However – while it is not the ending I would have chosen – it did make a sort of peculiar sense for me. Throughout the novel, Elizabeth indulges in a good deal of introspective navel gazing – she’s a little bit whiney I suppose. Her life is dull – she is disappointed by how it has turned out – but she never really does much about it –the reader sees how there were times when she nearly had – but just never quite managed it. Even in Morocco there is a moment when the reader thinks Elizabeth is going to strike out on her own – but here again she goes back to what is easy – it is as if Elizabeth is simply unable to go the whole hog – she’s good at talking about it – ruminating on her lot – but she just slips back into the old routine. Elizabeth emerges as a woman repeating the mistakes of her youth in middle age – destined to live out the same life again. Nina Bawden allows her readers to really know her characters – and while we all may interpret their motivations slightly differently – we have these complex not always likeable people set out before us – and in just 200 pages or so, we have their whole lives laid bare.
Nina Bawden’s Carrie’s War was one of my all-time favourite children’s books and I really enjoyed the couple of Bawden’s adult books I read last year. I find Bawden’s writing very engaging, her characters strong and believable their lives are fully explored and often portrayed with sharp humour – after reading The Devil by the Sea and A Grain of Truth I wanted to read all of Bawden’s novels for adults. I enjoyed ‘A woman of my age’ very much – although not quite as much as those two books I just mentioned, for me there were a few little odd things which jarred slightly.
“When I look in the mirror – not to see if the grey roots are beginning to show before the next tinting, but in the same way I used to look at myself when I was seventeen, at what, whom and why – I remain, as I did then, cloudy, fading, sadly out of focus. I do not know myself, only my own situation: I am Elizabeth Jourdelay, married to Richard, the mother of his two sons. I am, I am middle aged. This is an embarrassment that has come upon me suddenly, taking me by surprise so that I don’t really believe it. Looking in the mirror I see the wrinkles, but perhaps tomorrow they will be gone and my skin will be smooth again. Though wrinkles are not important. The important thing is that I am in the middle of my life and I feel as I did when I was adolescent, that I do not know where to go from here.
What of the time between? What have I done – become – during twenty long battling years? Is there no answer, no key?”
In ‘A Woman of my Age’ we meet Elizabeth – a woman of about 37 – who having been married for around eighteen years is no longer very interested in her husband and considers herself middle aged. Travelling in Morocco with her husband Richard, allows Elizabeth time to look back over her life, how is it she has ended up where she is? Brought up by two aunts who had worked for the suffrage movement and taught her to engage in politics, Elizabeth left university without taking her degree in order to marry Richard. Richard is a handsome, charming man, quite persuasive and prone to bursts of temper he is happiest with Elizabeth undertaking the traditional wife and mother role. There were times in her younger years when Elizabeth was frustrated by her life, yearning for a chance to work – however humbly – within the political arena – yet she finds herself sacrificing her ambitions for her family. Elizabeth’s view of herself and her relationship will surprise – maybe shock many modern readers –even shrugging off her husband hitting her during a particularly bad row.
In the searing heat of the Moroccan desert – Elizabeth and Richard meet two other couples. Flora is an old friend – particularly of Richard’s – Elizabeth hasn’t seen her for a number of years. Flora a woman of around 40 is travelling with her young lover Adam. The other couple are the Hobbs – a couple in their 60’s, Mrs Hobbs is good hearted friendly woman, very large and rather unwell, she and her husband are devoted to one another. Initially the Hobbs’ are a couple that Elizabeth and Richard smile at behind their backs, finding them slightly ridiculous – but Elizabeth quickly becomes genuinely fond of them. Sexually uninterested in her husband, resisting his advances when she can, Elizabeth is amazed to find herself an object of attraction to both Adam and Mr Hobbs – she is further surprised by her own reaction to them. As the group continue their journey across the desert –the sexual tensions that have built up have life changing consequences for almost everyone.
There is quite a twist in the ending of this novel- not something I saw coming, and certainly it wasn’t the ending that I would have chosen. I don’t want to give away too much – in case anyone else is thinking of reading it soon – but I suspect it is an ending which dismays many readers. However – while it is not the ending I would have chosen – it did make a sort of peculiar sense for me. Throughout the novel, Elizabeth indulges in a good deal of introspective navel gazing – she’s a little bit whiney I suppose. Her life is dull – she is disappointed by how it has turned out – but she never really does much about it –the reader sees how there were times when she nearly had – but just never quite managed it. Even in Morocco there is a moment when the reader thinks Elizabeth is going to strike out on her own – but here again she goes back to what is easy – it is as if Elizabeth is simply unable to go the whole hog – she’s good at talking about it – ruminating on her lot – but she just slips back into the old routine. Elizabeth emerges as a woman repeating the mistakes of her youth in middle age – destined to live out the same life again. Nina Bawden allows her readers to really know her characters – and while we all may interpret their motivations slightly differently – we have these complex not always likeable people set out before us – and in just 200 pages or so, we have their whole lives laid bare.
September 21, 2021
Grim as fuck
June 5, 2014
What a wonderfully frightening novel, cleaving to the heart of domestic drudgery and exposing the subtle panic it finds there. If only the ending hadn't been such a letdown.
November 17, 2013
A fascinating read; the main character, Elizabeth, is a woman who finds herself in a situation that, although more common at the time of the novel, can still be found today. Her background is important in her approach to her situation.; the early loss of her mother, the intellectual atmosphere generated by the aunts that bring her up and her response to all of that all feel very true. She is a strange mixture of politically committed and intellectually snobbish. She is in denial about her husband's behaviour.
Her husband is similarly depicted in a way that gives a clear understanding of the development of his personality.He has more humble origins than his wife; he has a difficult relationship with his surviving mother who is rather narcissistic. He is ambitious and rather vain. A description of his contact with his father is perfectly timed in the book to coincide with some aspects of his character's behaviour almost as an explanation.
The aunts are wonderful and a glorious contrast to Elizabeth's mother-in-law. The Hobbs were similarly well drawn. There was a common theme of women being probably more promising but being unable to progress with their interests.
It was interesting that there was so little about Elizabeth's sons or her relationship with them. I found this frustrating given that she had been brought up in the feminist household and I think that how she was with her sons and how she wished them to see her would have been an important part of the character..
I am less convinced by the sense of place in the writing although this is relative to her characters.
Her prose is elegant and a joy to read.
I found that, however much she was authentic, I didn't warm to the character of Elizabeth and therefore I "liked" rather than "really liked" the book.
Off to look for more Nina Bawden which is always a good sign.
Her husband is similarly depicted in a way that gives a clear understanding of the development of his personality.He has more humble origins than his wife; he has a difficult relationship with his surviving mother who is rather narcissistic. He is ambitious and rather vain. A description of his contact with his father is perfectly timed in the book to coincide with some aspects of his character's behaviour almost as an explanation.
The aunts are wonderful and a glorious contrast to Elizabeth's mother-in-law. The Hobbs were similarly well drawn. There was a common theme of women being probably more promising but being unable to progress with their interests.
It was interesting that there was so little about Elizabeth's sons or her relationship with them. I found this frustrating given that she had been brought up in the feminist household and I think that how she was with her sons and how she wished them to see her would have been an important part of the character..
I am less convinced by the sense of place in the writing although this is relative to her characters.
Her prose is elegant and a joy to read.
I found that, however much she was authentic, I didn't warm to the character of Elizabeth and therefore I "liked" rather than "really liked" the book.
Off to look for more Nina Bawden which is always a good sign.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 7, 2019
The marriage of a couple which could be the marriage of any real-life one. Interesting and realistic; felt a bit sorry for the narrator-wife.
July 27, 2017
For me, one of Bawden’s strengths is the psychology of her characters which she so deftly presents. It is clear that she understands them as well as she possibly can, and this shines through on every page. The relationships which she builds between certain characters are well played out. I really like the first person narration used in A Woman of My Age, and feel that it works marvellously with the story. From what I know of Bawden’s life, some aspects of this book read like an autobiography of sorts – for example, her protagonist joining the Labour Party, and the Oxfordshire setting. Her use of descriptions, particularly with regard to the scenes she paints in Morocco, set the tone marvellously, and add some much needed vibrancy to an otherwise commonplace plot.
Despite the fact that A Woman of My Age is an incredibly well written piece with believably crafted characters, I struggled to actually like any of them. The weak among them seemed too feeble, and the strong-minded too callous. Elizabeth, the narrator of the piece, was rather too pretentious, and in one scene she even complains about the family home which she and her husband move into as having ‘only six bedrooms’. I found the passages about Richard and Elizabeth’s past lives rather dull if I’m honest, especially with regard to their professions. My interest in it slipped as it reached the middle, but the last few unexpected and rather startling chapters really pulled it back for me. A Woman of My Age is a quiet novel in many respects, but the way in which Bawden portrays humans and the cruelties which can rage amongst us alone makes it worth reading.
Despite the fact that A Woman of My Age is an incredibly well written piece with believably crafted characters, I struggled to actually like any of them. The weak among them seemed too feeble, and the strong-minded too callous. Elizabeth, the narrator of the piece, was rather too pretentious, and in one scene she even complains about the family home which she and her husband move into as having ‘only six bedrooms’. I found the passages about Richard and Elizabeth’s past lives rather dull if I’m honest, especially with regard to their professions. My interest in it slipped as it reached the middle, but the last few unexpected and rather startling chapters really pulled it back for me. A Woman of My Age is a quiet novel in many respects, but the way in which Bawden portrays humans and the cruelties which can rage amongst us alone makes it worth reading.
March 19, 2025
A Woman of My Age
Nina Bowden
🇲🇦
Elizabeth and Richard go to Morocco on holiday to escape their humdrum life. As Elizabeth narrates their journey and acquaintances they make on their tour, she introduces her upbringing with her Aunts, her marriage to Richard. When the couple bump into Flora, a friend of Richard’s, Elizabeth becomes suspicious about how serendipitous the meeting is. The heat of the desert causes unresolved and suppressed emotions to come to the surface. The deceptions and tensions of Elizabeth and Richard’s marriage reach an inevitable catastrophe.
Nina Bowden is masterful in her themes of marriage, families, expectations, betrayal.
I can understand why ‘A Woman of My Age’ isn’t hot news in 2024; its conclusion and attitudes would jar with modern audiences. But that’s not to say it should be renegaded to obscurity: it’s a good read and the plot is gripping. For me, reading this book with the tantalising mentions of Meknes, Fez, and the Moroccan landscape tied in with my tour and adventures in Morocco!
Nina Bowden
🇲🇦
Elizabeth and Richard go to Morocco on holiday to escape their humdrum life. As Elizabeth narrates their journey and acquaintances they make on their tour, she introduces her upbringing with her Aunts, her marriage to Richard. When the couple bump into Flora, a friend of Richard’s, Elizabeth becomes suspicious about how serendipitous the meeting is. The heat of the desert causes unresolved and suppressed emotions to come to the surface. The deceptions and tensions of Elizabeth and Richard’s marriage reach an inevitable catastrophe.
Nina Bowden is masterful in her themes of marriage, families, expectations, betrayal.
I can understand why ‘A Woman of My Age’ isn’t hot news in 2024; its conclusion and attitudes would jar with modern audiences. But that’s not to say it should be renegaded to obscurity: it’s a good read and the plot is gripping. For me, reading this book with the tantalising mentions of Meknes, Fez, and the Moroccan landscape tied in with my tour and adventures in Morocco!
January 21, 2019
Re-read. First read in my twenties when i was 20 years younger than the narrator. This time around Im 20 years older. I don’t know that I remembered the book so much as I could remember who I was when I first read it as I totally understood why this book would have struck me back then. And, fir different reasons, why it strikes me again today.
Started me on Bawden back in the day.
Started me on Bawden back in the day.
July 17, 2022
Why do writers fall out of favour? Bawden is very underrated. Intelligent writing about a woman's life mid 50's-60's.
February 7, 2023
3 stars.
It was OK. I was going to give it 2.5 stars because for a good part of the book, it was slow going. Slow going amongst characters I had no affinity towards. It picked up for the last third of the book though. So it was an OK read. I think I expected more from this author because I so much enjoyed Carrie’s War (published 1973) by her. I so much enjoyed it I went and ordered a number of her other works, I’ve read Circle of Conceit and was not too fond of that book. I hope I like some of her other books!
I read from the Virago Modern Classics re-issue.
Synopsis from back cover:
• Elizabeth and Richard, 18 years married, have come to Morocco on holiday, journeying from its fertile coast to the barren uplands beyond the Atlas Mountains. As the adventures and disasters of their travels unfold, so too does Elizabeth’s account of the desert her life has become. Her grievances and frustrations are credible and sympathetically told, yet. Simultaneously and subversively, Nina Bawden demonstrates the inevitable ambivalences and deceptions within marriage. These tragi-comic tensions are highlighted by the unexpected arrival of a friend travelling with a much younger lover and by the potentially oppressive companionship of the garrulous Mrs. Hobbs with her considerate, quietly literary husband.
As the story moves towards a shocking catastrophe and an extremely surprising coda, Nina Bawden deploys her themes — marriage, families, expectations and betrayals — with poise, wit, and charm. And proves once again that there is no more subtle chronicler of the human heart.
‘Rarely have the workings of a woman’s mind been revealed with such clarity’ —Daily Telegraph
Reviews (all nicely written):
• https://readingmattersblog.com/2009/0...
• https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2013/...
• https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-cyni...
• https://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordp...
It was OK. I was going to give it 2.5 stars because for a good part of the book, it was slow going. Slow going amongst characters I had no affinity towards. It picked up for the last third of the book though. So it was an OK read. I think I expected more from this author because I so much enjoyed Carrie’s War (published 1973) by her. I so much enjoyed it I went and ordered a number of her other works, I’ve read Circle of Conceit and was not too fond of that book. I hope I like some of her other books!
I read from the Virago Modern Classics re-issue.
Synopsis from back cover:
• Elizabeth and Richard, 18 years married, have come to Morocco on holiday, journeying from its fertile coast to the barren uplands beyond the Atlas Mountains. As the adventures and disasters of their travels unfold, so too does Elizabeth’s account of the desert her life has become. Her grievances and frustrations are credible and sympathetically told, yet. Simultaneously and subversively, Nina Bawden demonstrates the inevitable ambivalences and deceptions within marriage. These tragi-comic tensions are highlighted by the unexpected arrival of a friend travelling with a much younger lover and by the potentially oppressive companionship of the garrulous Mrs. Hobbs with her considerate, quietly literary husband.
As the story moves towards a shocking catastrophe and an extremely surprising coda, Nina Bawden deploys her themes — marriage, families, expectations and betrayals — with poise, wit, and charm. And proves once again that there is no more subtle chronicler of the human heart.
‘Rarely have the workings of a woman’s mind been revealed with such clarity’ —Daily Telegraph
Reviews (all nicely written):
• https://readingmattersblog.com/2009/0...
• https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2013/...
• https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-cyni...
• https://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordp...
March 4, 2023
Carrie's War was a favourite of my family and I'd wanted to read an adult novel to see what they were like. Bawden wrote this in 1991 when package deals were the norm and couples travelling in Morocco was not unusual. The heat is portrayed extremely well through Elizabeth's worries and reflections and then through the travels, from town to town, with the couple she and Richard meet. The writing told me some denouement was going to happen and it does...! I felt it was authentic and shocking as was the follow up.
I was reminded of Margaret Forster's writings when reading this and wondered why. I suspect it's because of the lack of the sensational in the novel.
I was reminded of Margaret Forster's writings when reading this and wondered why. I suspect it's because of the lack of the sensational in the novel.
June 21, 2023
Another new author for me, I came across this novel by Nina Bawden completely by chance and I'm so glad I did.
On the surface, this is just a very depressing novel. There's lots here that's not exactly a barrel of laughs, but Bawden writes with such a confident, light touch, with just a hint of wry humour, that I really enjoyed reading this.
I will absolutely be looking for more by her. A great find!
On the surface, this is just a very depressing novel. There's lots here that's not exactly a barrel of laughs, but Bawden writes with such a confident, light touch, with just a hint of wry humour, that I really enjoyed reading this.
I will absolutely be looking for more by her. A great find!
November 2, 2025
Very interesting and at times searingly beautiful and precise, as well as funny and a bit cruel. Nina Bawden is a very insightful writer who wrote an almost perfect novel (the ending - a couple of pages - is a bit meh, but also not really. I do get why some would feel that it spoils the novel.)
4,5/5.
4,5/5.
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