A House Unlocked

by Penelope Lively

In A House Unlocked, Whitbread Award- and Booker Prize-winning Penelope Lively takes us on a journey of her familial country house in England that her grandparents bought in 1923. As her narrative shifts from room to room, object to object, she paints a moving portrait of an era of rapid change -- and of the family that changed with the times. As she charts the course of the domestic tensions of class and community among her relatives, she brings to life the effects of the horrors of the Russian Revolution and the Holocaust through portraits of the refugees who came to live with them. A fascinating, intimate social history of its times, A House Unlocked is an eloquent meditation on place and time, memory and history, and above all a tribute to the meaning of home.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, History, Biography, British Literature, Biography Memoir, Autobiography

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Penelope Lively is the author of many prize-winning novels and short-story collections for both adults and children. She has twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize: once in 1977 for her first novel, The Road to Lichfield, and again in 1984 for According to Mark. She later won the 1987 Booker Prize for her highly acclaimed novel Moon Tiger.

Her other books include Going Back; Judgement Day; Next to Nature, Art; Perfect Happiness; Passing On; City of the Mind; Cleopatra’s Sister; Heat Wave; Beyond the Blue Mountains, a collection of short stories; Oleander, Jacaranda, a memoir of her childhood days in Egypt; Spiderweb; her autobiographical work, A House Unlocked; The Photograph; Making It Up; Consequences; Family Album, which was shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Novel Award, and How It All Began.

She is a popular writer for children and has won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Award. She was appointed CBE in the 2001 New Year’s Honours List, and DBE in 2012.

Penelope Lively lives in London. She was married to Jack Lively, who died in 1998.

Reviews

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although the items talked about in this book were attached to the author’s family home, this book is not strictly about that home or her family. Lively is known as a novelist and this could have been a memoir but isn’t. She calls her revelations a mnemonic system. Items in this home span most of the twentieth century and the author links them to twentieth century social history. It’s a great idea and for the most part she pulls it off well. Golsoncott is a large country house in Somerset, built in the Edwardian era and first occupied by Lively’s family in the 1920s. Lively approaches ideas by entering the house and explaining items of their time with 21st century eyes. Among her examples are a dinner gong in the entryway, items of silverware for early 20th century tables, art work showing children who were housed here in the countryside during WWII. Lively is expert at showing how society has changed. She shows things to be more tolerant with more opportunity now. Then she asks herself if that is really true? You no longer need to deal with the maid problem or the “washing up” that so flummoxed her grandmother later in life. You buy a dishwasher and then get a job to pay for that item and that takes you away from your children. But then didn’t your grandmother hire nursery staff to care of her children. Nothing is ever clear cut.

Although A House Unlocked specifically deals with Britain it makes sense for the rest of the world. Underprivileged people in Britain no longer grow up expecting to work to maintain the “civilized” lifestyle of their betters. Polished silver crumb brushes and grape cutters are now more or less curiosities but tell us something about social shifts. The Somerset people here didn’t have a history of dealing with immigrant populations like people in the United States who have seen waves of different groups become absorbed into middle classes. In the book, social structures had remained pretty stable for a long time only to undergo a seismic shift in the twentieth century. One of my favorite chapters dealt with the misunderstandings in the 1940s between families trying to do their patriotic part by taking in displaced city children and Jewish children threatened by Germany. It was an eye opening experience for both the rural people (why won’t these kids eat at a dinner table) and the kids taken out of an urban environment and expected to sleep in beds and eat vegetables.

The book encourages a look into your own life, wherever you are. Remember that funny piece of furniture shaped like a gothic cathedral window at your grandparents house? The family used to gather around it to listen to baseball games and music? By my time the radio was no longer used but remained in the living room as a quaint piece of furniture. Many social changes have occurred as we move to more solitary lives with earbuds.

[Bloodorange · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 stars, and I am not not glad to have read this; it was not what I expected, but the forays into different aspects of life of the British life in the twentieth century are informative and accessible enough to share with my students, if need be.

The books covers topics such as travel and tourism; WWII evacuees; the role of religion; refugees from (broadly understood) Europe; gardens and the worldwide hunt for the new species of plants; landscapes and hunting; marriage, childrearing and gender roles; domestic service and class.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Penelope Lively brings her fascination with the impact of the past on the present to the very personal story of her grandparents’ house and its contents. ‘This book has tried to use the furnishings of a house as a mnemonic system. I have always been excited and intrigued by the silent eloquence of the physical world…Every house tells a story’. Through a variety of objects, from a grand piano to a picnic rug, she pieces together a family story but simultaneously widens her focus to tell the story of the social and cultural changes that have taken place in the UK in her lifetime. Lively’s elegant style, honed over a long career as a novelist, short story writer and children’s author, is, as always, a joy to read and, combined with such fascinating subject matter, A House Unlocked is definitely worth searching out.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lively spins a social history of upper-class England through a portrait of Golsoncott, a Somerset manor house that her grandmother and family owned for much of the twentieth century. Her way in is through artefacts like paintings and samplers, but also outmoded objects that were once in regular use, such as grape scissors, a bon-bon dish and a gong stand. There are some notable side tracks, such as a reference to the Winchester embroiderers who are the subject of Tracy Chevalier's A Single Thread. The book proceeds roughly chronologically from her childhood (covering the sheltering of WWII evacuees) to her marriage, with subthemes of religion and gardening. One thing I've noted in Lively's nonfiction before is that it feels formulaic, like she made an outline and stuck slavishly to it; the scaffolding is meant to disappear during the writing. If you have a particular interest in a recreation of the time period, this is rather like factual background for the Cazalet Chronicles. I quickly decided to just skim it and leave in a Little Free Library so I don't have to carry it home on the train in my suitcase from a holiday in Berwick.

I liked this passage on gardening:

"A garden is perilously unstable. A few decades of neglect and it melts into the landscape, its existence to be read only by the perceptive. It becomes archaeology, with some tenacious growths hinting at what once was there. Gardeners know this; the fragility of the past is set against the robustness of digging and planting, the emphatic qualities of earth and roots and stems. To garden is to seize the day."

[Sula · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love and relate Penelope Lively's perspective and thoughts on time, and how she describes this intangible force. I thought this book might exceed in this area, as she looks back at her grandparents' house. At times this comes out very well, but I didn't find this the main focus. The house and its objects act as a sort of mnemonic device to explore aspects of history. An object provides a theme for the chapter. The result is a somewhat erratic mix: a selection of subjects from the UK's history. Some of these are treated quite personally, directly speaking of the family's experience, others much more factual (these ones are less strong). Some chapters felt like 2 stars, other more interesting ones 4 stars. When this book feels like a random selection from slightly dry history books it fails, but when she write more personally, bringing elements to life and pondering on time and changing perspectives it succeeds.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Truth is stranger than fiction when the walls talk in novelist Penelope Lively's memoir of her grandparents' English country house. A must-read for (in order of must-ness): 1) Fans of Lively's novels of unconventional women of old-moneyed British descent 2) old-house fanatics 3) Anglophiles 4) World-War II buffs.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Penelope Lively , an award winning writer, has written both a memoir and an autobiography in this well written and interesting book. She uses different objects and rooms in the house to embark on various reminiscences; a photo, the garden, horse tack. This literary device
Is unusual but successful bringing to light family stories from her youth ( and before) up to the present. Her skillful,storytelling is engrossing and gives a glimpse into the world of the past and the relationships of family members through the decades.
An interesting and detailed insight into the life of a literary icon.

[Ruth · Rating 1 out of 5]

I bought this for my Kindle because I was desperate for something to read RIGHT NOW, and I’ve enjoyed the work of Penelope Lively before. I expected her story of the old family house to be as charming and absorbing as her novels are. Yawn. Was I wrong. She drones on and on about various aspects of English history only tenuously connected to the house. I quit less than halfway through, leaving my empty boots mired in the mud.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such an interesting book! Penelope Lively is one of my favourite British authors, and this book is woven around the family home in Somerset that her grandparents bought in 1923. She uses it to show how apparently unchanging buildings and landscapes can reveal both momentous events in history and changes in technology from trains to needlecraft.

As readers of her fiction know, Lively has a discerning eye and a pleasing awareness of the inequities fostered by class systems, but she is also generous in her appraisal of those who hold different views. She herself is agnostic, and her much-loved grandmother was staunch C of E, but Lively recognises the social and cohesive value of the traditions of church-going in villages, and mourns the loss of churches as churches, as attendances decline.

She tells us how her grandmother’s needlework records the presence of six bewildered evacuees during the Blitz and how the muddle and misery caused by that was based on mercifully wrong pre-war projections about likely bomb damage by the Luftwaffe. These projections drew on data from bomb damage in the Great War – and seen in that context, the evacuations for all their faults, were prudent. Some children suffered terribly because of ill-matched billets and the chasm between the social classes but there were also benefits for some of the slum children whose health and habits shocked even the poor in rural England. Lively’s own husband was lucky: he was recognised as bright by the retired school teacher with whom he was billeted, coached to a scholarship and went on to be an academic.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2009/05/15/a...

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very interesting book. Part social history and part memoir, Lively, in her early 70s reflects on the changes in the world.

She was born in Egypt in the 1933, and lived there into her teens, with summer vacations on her grandmother's estate. On moving back to England she faced a number of adjustments as the world changed around her. She uses the backdrop of the estate to talk about the changes to the world and society and herself.

Beautifully written, as you'd expect from an author of her talents. Strongly recommended.

[Ninu Nair · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the writing. The House literally opens its door for you, letting you understand about its layout and household articles, the old photo album, the gardening style and most importantly, about the people who lived here. The historically significant events are narrated with personal touches, the anecdotes and references from other sources. It is a rich experience. I wish I had explored the author much earlier.

[Carol Wakefield · Rating 4 out of 5]

A look at English history from the late 1800s to late 1900s using the house of ms Livelys grandmother as a departure. Some chapters were more interesting than others to me. The one on WW11 children moving from the city to live with country people was engrossing. I had read of this in other books but the author makes this experience very clear as one with mixed reviews. Then there is washing up as a major class distinction. Wow. Fine read.

[Gabi Coatsworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting way to handle a memoir, based on starting points in the house where Penelope Lively grew up, after coming to live in England, having been born in Egypt.
So, a sampler leads to a description of the evacuees sent to the house during the war, which in turn leads to a description of the history behind that, and the way the war impacted the family. An unusual combination of memoir and history, beautifully written, of course.

[Kathie Wilkinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting concept, viewing history and the passage of time through a single home. But the book is a bit of a slog with some very good parts. I especially enjoyed the sections on the various parts of her grandparents home, the children's nursery, servant areas, etc. and how they are no longer relevant. As a gardener I also found the section on the garden very good.

[Sylvia Clare · Rating 3 out of 5]

well sort of finished, it was more social history skimming than memoir for me. Beautifully written of course, but i wanted more insight into her family than we are given. And most of the social history during the war and after it. I sort of already knew so nothing that surprising for me. But it might suit other people a lot more so don't let me put you off please.

[Dominique · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nostalgic, critical and informative of a different time. It was lovely to hear the voice of the author so clearly and with such lyricism throughout this exploration of a house, its inhabitants, objects, events and social eras. Loved to have such a intimate, but also historical and somewhat removed view of the house. Very clever, loved it!

[Nerak · Rating 4 out of 5]

“A look at the tumults and trials of the twentieth century through the perspective of her family’s ancestral home, Golsoncott, the country house in Somerset, England, that her grandparents bought in 1923.”

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting observations on the change in British social structure from the late 19th to mid 20th century through the lens of memories of a family home, its contents, the gardens and grounds, live-in help, refugees and evacuees housed there, the changes wrought by both World Wars. Absorbing.

[Lljones · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just can't get enough of Lively.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I prefer Penelope Lively's fiction. At times this was interesting. At other times, I found myself skipping lots of pages on historical events.

[Catherine Jeffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

A social history of England wrapped up in the history of a family home and the objects within the house.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very enjoyable social history based on the author’s family home. I particularly enjoyed the information on the refugees

[Caro · Rating 3 out of 5]

read at the beach 2002

[Kyra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dryer than I expected. Actually not what I expected at all. More of a personal essay than a book-length history. I am tiny bit disappointed.

[Lady D · Rating 2 out of 5]

The bit on the evacuated children was good, the rest not so much.

[Greta Grimm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Penolope wrote this for me. A casual book, not for everyone; pretty random (but fascinating) memoir about an old family home and between-the-wars England.

[Mark Bowden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enlightening, in all sorts of different ways. I only docked a star because of the gardening chapter - it's my loss I'm sure but lists of plants just don't interest me.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author wrote this memoir using certain items from her grandparents' home as memory aides to discuss life at this large British house in the early to mid-twentieth century. It kept me reading and I enjoyed it.

[NC Weil · Rating 4 out of 5]

This memoir by fine English author Penelope Lively uses her grandmother's house in the country as a means to view social, economic and cultural changes in Britain during the 20th Century. Her grandmother lived under a set of rules and customs that later generations can only marvel at - she always had servants, and had no ability to prepare food, nor any sense whatever of the possibility that she could do the washing-up. Her generation had no fear of getting their hands and clothes dirty - she was an avid gardener - but her sense of class expectations dominated. She and her siblings walked many miles daily, rode horses, and hunted, and knew everyone in their vicinity - the rise of the automobile and the depopulating of the countryside in favor of city opportunities changed all that.
But Lively isn't just recalling a house, with its fixed ways and aging-in-place furnishings - she is also observing changes of custom, and discussing art, writing, her student years at Oxford, etc.
She has this to say about marriage:
"Every marriage is a journey, a negotiation, an accommodation. In a long marriage, both partners will mutate; the people who set out together are not the same two people after ten years, let alone thirty or more.... You are separate people, but there is a third shadowy presence which is an entity, the fusion of you both."
About customs, she writes:
"Our early assumptions and beliefs are archaeological debris and their retrieval is almost as difficult, and quite as haphazard, as the recovery of the vision of childhood. What did I think before I learned how to think? How did I receive ideas before I discovered skepticism?"
She blends this passage of time with descriptions of artifacts of her grandmother's home and life, silver pieces from another era: "the bon-bon dish, the salver, the ivory-handled crumb scoop."
Lively is always worth reading - alongside the great currents of life, she shows us the happenstance, the details in which one may defy what seems destined.

[Joanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book Penelope Lively uses her memories of Golsoncott, her grandparent's house in Somerset to discuss social changes in England during the twentieth century. Each chapter is titled according to items in the house which Lively remembers, and these items are the starting point for the discussion. So, for example, the second chapter is entitled 'The Children on the Sampler'. It begins with a description of a fire screen which was embroidered by her grandmother, who was a very accomplished needlewoman;

"It is formal and stylized, in the sampler tradition, with the house at the top and beneath it significant elements of the garden - lily pond with goldfish shimmering beneath the blue stitched water, dovecot with white doves, sundial, mole and molehill, frog, toad, dragonfly.....Below that is the stable block, horses peering from loose boxes, each named, and a row of prancing dogs beneath - Sheltie and Waif and Merlin and the famous Dingo, a real Australian dingo bought from London Zoo by my aunt Rachel. At the very bottom is a line of children. Not as you might think, grandchildren, but the wartime evacuees."

Lively then goes on to write about the evacuees who were billeted at Golsoncott, and more generally about the effect of the evacuation on the country. Other chapters cover the opening up of the West Country to tourism with the coming of the railways, the role of the church in rural life, and garden history, among other subjects.

Lively's references to her own family history have the effect of making the subjects personal and real, but she isn't sentimental about the past. I don't think I have read any of Penelope Lively's novels, and this book has made me want to seek them out.