Matilda's England

by William Trevor

These three short stories add up to a whole. Set before, during and after World War II, they form a biography of Matilda, third child of a farmer and his wife. She grows up in the shadow of Challacombe, which, in the end, dominates her life and dictates her fate, and represents much more.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Ireland, Irish Literature, British Literature

88 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

William Trevor, KBE grew up in various provincial towns and attended a number of schools, graduating from Trinity College, in Dublin, with a degree in history. He first exercised his artistry as a sculptor, working as a teacher in Northern Ireland and then emigrated to England in search of work when the school went bankrupt. He could have returned to Ireland once he became a successful writer, he said, "but by then I had become a wanderer, and one way and another, I just stayed in England ... I hated leaving Ireland. I was very bitter at the time. But, had it not happened, I think I might never have written at all."

In 1958 Trevor published his first novel, A Standard of Behaviour, to little critical success. Two years later, he abandoned sculpting completely, feeling his work had become too abstract, and found a job writing copy for a London advertising agency. 'This was absurd,' he said. 'They would give me four lines or so to write and four or five days to write it in. It was so boring. But they had given me this typewriter to work on, so I just started writing stories. I sometimes think all the people who were missing in my sculpture gushed out into the stories.' He published several short stories, then his second and third novels, which both won the Hawthornden Prize (established in 1919 by Alice Warrender and named after William Drummond of Hawthornden, the Hawthornden Prize is one of the UK's oldest literary awards). A number of other prizes followed, and Trevor began working full-time as a writer in 1965.

Since then, Trevor has published nearly 40 novels, short story collections, plays, and collections of nonfiction. He has won three Whitbread Awards, a PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. In 1977 Trevor was appointed an honorary (he holds Irish, not British, citizenship) Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to literature and in 2002 he was elevated to honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE). Since he began writing, William Trevor regularly spends half the year in Italy or Switzerland, often visiting Ireland in the other half. He lived in Devon, in South West England, on an old mill surrounded by 40 acres of land.

Reviews

[William Dearth · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a pleasant surprise this book was. This author was recommended to me by a Goodreads friend of mine, Blackwell Boyce and I am grateful for that. There are three parts to this story and all are clever, riveting and for the most part melancholy. I was reminded of some of the short stories of Truman Capote while reading this and the quality of the writing is on the same level. Highly recommended.

[Josh Ang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nestled in the middle portion of William Trevor’s gargantuan volume of short stories, “Collected Stories”, is this novella, a triptych about a farmer’s daughter, who befriends a widow, the slightly eccentric Mrs Ashburton, who lives on the once lavish grounds of Challacombe Manor, now crumbling from neglect.

Together with her young siblings Dick and Betty, they help to restore the tennis court to a semblance of its former glory, and manage to bring some sunshine back into Mrs Ashburton’s life, as well as that of the surrounding community, which culminates into an unforgettable picnic and tennis party on a glorious summer day. Alas, that proves to be the end of the good times, which marked the start of the impending gloom of World War Two that was about to descend on them, and take Matilda’s loved ones from her.

Unbeknownst even to herself, Challacombe Manor had taken on such a huge symbolic significance to her that it becomes a representation of the safety of the past, as well as Mrs Ashburton’s memory of her days as a young bride before her husband came back damaged from the first world war. Matilda sees herself as the guardian of Mrs Ashburton’s memories, and in her desperate attempt to go back to the past, she finds herself as a resident in it many years after the party. (The intervening years also shatter her romantic ideals of what the summer house on the grounds of Challacombe Manor represents.) She marries the son of the new owners of the Manor, and we are never sure if she is as guileless as she presents herself in the way she succumbs to this opportunistic union, only to guard the place jealously against her husband and his family and friends, bent as she is on holding onto the place itself, at all cost.

A wondrously wrought story and told in such clear and succinct prose. This is but one of the lengthier pieces I felt I had to write about, while I have just read it, lost as I am in the brilliance of Trevor’s short stories in this volume which I am still savouring slowly.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this on the train today, to and from Zürich. It was excellent. Three connected stories, each as good as the other two.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is set in three parts and is about the life of Matilda growing up in the country side on a small farm during the thirties which were the happiest times of her life with family and friends and neighbours ,then through the war years which are not so good at the farm, and on into the post war years and married life...Later on in the 1970s she is thinking back and reflecting on her memories and now realises she has never been able to totally move on with her life and has in fact become imprisoned by the past in a haunting and sad way .

Well written book with lots of interesting characters bringing to life living in the country side in Dorset in this particular time .

[Tay☆✿ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Melancholy in a book.

[Ape · Rating 3 out of 5]

2009 bookcrossing journal:

This isn´t exactly a long book and I read it this afternoon. It´s three chapters in the life of a girl called Matilda - one just before the second world war when she is about nine years old; the second during the second world war; and the third describing her adult life.

I really enjoyed the first chapter, and you can understand why it is so sunny and idyllic considering she spends the rest of her life looking back longingly at those days and unable to get on with the here and now. So ultimately it ends up being a very sad story of a woman´s life.

Hadn´t heard of William Trevor before I picked up this book. Have just looked him up on good old Wikipedia. Irish writer born in 1928. Apparently themes of people unhappy in life and unable to change their lot are a feature of his writing.

[Rama · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked from William Trevor's Collected Stories for Penguin's 60th anniversary, this almost-novella includes three chapters that seem to be a cross between a (later) Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle, Kate Chopin's stories, Victorian goth and Bob Dylan's "Desolation Row."

Starting from a nine year old Matilda's chronicle of events leading to a tennis court party given by a war-affected old lady who lives at Challacombe Manor because of Lloyd's Bank's graces and the official WWII, this work grapples with WWI conditioned fears and perspectives of the old lady drilled into the nine year old who inherits the defense mechanism of taking comfort in the past and is increasingly affected by it [and increasingly affects others by it] over time. In a rural setting, this morphs into an obsession with the manor and reality substitution with the past.

Finally, Matilda is 48 and is already "an old maid." Death filters through the child in the first couple of chapters, while the last one has to do with Matilda's twenty first birthday party, her marriage and its breakdown. The breakdown of the marriage is anticipated, and with it comes total control of the sign of permanence for Matilda - the manor itself that is the only thing not sold by her husband Ralphie who beats a retreat by getting rid of all other properties acquired to realize his idea of permanence.

I think that a bit of gaslighting is highlighted toward the end portions, but one is not very sure who does it. This is partially what makes Matilda's England an epic coursing through a mere 88 pages of a pocketbook.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a nice surprise. I found it secondhand and saw it had good ratings but was half expecting a dull posh English romance.

Matilda’s England is her idealised pre World War I and II version, where her family is unchanged and there are neighbourhood parties on the tennis court.

But things do change regardless of Matilda’s wishes. War disrupts families and life in the country. Conscription leads the iconic local mansion to ruin. Later on it is restored by a foreign family - from the profits made by manufacturing weapons for the wars that ruined it.

Matilda’s role model who lived in the mansion talked about her husband’s PTSD upon returning from battle. She said that cruelty is a natural thing in wartime, and that it lingers after.

I could relate, as my great grandad came back from World War I an abusive alcoholic. I think his trauma impacted each generation after, especially my Nan. It might have been better for everyone if he hadn’t returned.

Like the mansion, Matilda went to ruin because of the war, but money couldn’t restore her. The ending was haunting and showed the waste of living in the past and not adapting to change.

While the three connected short stories were quaint and simply written, the world and themes were rich in detail.

“There are casualties in wars, thousands of miles from where the fighting is.”

[Lucynell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book 37

Matilda's England
William Trevor
1979

5/5

"I wanted to belittle what wasn't real."

Taking a break from Swann's Way and stumbled on this 90-page awesomeness. God I love the Irish storytellers. This story is about a young girl living with her family in rural Ireland before and after the second world war. It's a little bit gothic and mysterious with an old woman and a derelict old mansion but as the story progresses you realise the mystery and the gothic elements are rooted in the people, especially our protagonist, Matilda. I never much liked unreliable characters but I liked it here very much. The author writes a cool and calm and precise language and as characters are revealed, layer by layer, it feels natural, logical, inevitable almost, and yet utterly compelling.

Folie a deux
🖤🖤

[Koduvayur Harikrishnan · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Matilda's England" was the fourth of many books I picked up from the Penguin 60s collection. I am not sure if there was a pattern that was used for the selection of books to be published as part of Penguin's 60th anniversary, but this book again reflects deeply into human nature, behaviour and related issues, all seen through the eyes of the protagonist, Matilda. Short as it is, it left me pondering the imperceptible effects of war on people. War, I realised, is not just about some soldiers killing others perceived as enemies. It is a terrible scourge on humankind in a myriad of ways. It changes the best of us into lesser mortals, leaving only regret and despair in its wake.

[Darkmond · Rating 3 out of 5]

One can truly live neither in the past nor in the future, only in the present.

Recommended to: Melancholics

While reading I found it rather boring, though I liked the "message" this book gives. That would be the very last 3 pages.
A book rather worth knowing, but not without skipping some pages.
But I am not into melancholic books, some people that are, will surely love this one dearly.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Impeccable Trevor: a lonely woman, from the working class, with limited prospects. But unlike many of his other characters, Matilda gets what she’s always wanted: not a living marriage, not close friends, but the manor house adjacent to where she grew up, where she lives out her existence, buried in the past. And she seems…if not happy, then at least satisfied.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The three stories are ‘The Tennis Court’, ‘The Summer House’, and ‘The Drawing-room’. It’s in the last that we read:

‘There are casualties in wars […] thousands of miles from where the fighting is. (p.85)

There’s no need to say much more: the book is by William Trevor, after all.

[W · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic trio of stories.

[Coenraad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes good writing is devastating. This is true of these three linked stories by William Trevor. 'The tennis court' introduces the narrator, Matilda, as a nine year old. The main event here is a tennis party at the house of a neighbour, whose husband returned from the Great War with shell shock; after years of suffering he died. Matilda often listened to the widowed neighbour's views about life and war. A day after the tennis party the Second World War broke out; 'The summer-house' shows how this war wreaks havoc on Matilda's family and society. In 'The drawing-room' she gets married, years after the war, but old issues still play out in her mind. The gripping psychological processes of the characters render the words spoken by one of them true: "There are casualties in war thousands of miles from where the fighting is." This is the power of Trevor's work: not showing us the brutality of the fighting and explosions, but reminding us of the millions of little stories related to wars compounding the devastation and amplifying the ruining of lives and societies, far from the original intent of the aggressors. Even under the veneer of respectability the cruelty of wars can fester and erupt unexpectedly. Arguably one of the very strongest volumes in the Penguin 60 series.

William Trevor vertel van die plaaslewe van Matilda, eers as negejarige; uiteindelik, in die derde verhaal, as getroude vrou. Hoewel ver verwyderd van die 'aksie' van die twee wêreldoorloë, is die effek van hierdie militêre aggressie onvermydelik. Die skryfwerk in hierdie verhale kom aanvanklik rustig en landelik voor, maar bou stelselmatig op tot dit die leser verpletterd laat. Een van die heel beste volumes in die Penguin 60 reeks.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this novella in the middle of William Trevor’s “Collected Stories” (bought in January 2009). I hadn’t yet read this (longer) story so was pleased to have a new William Trevor story to savour. Although within a collection it was such a pleasure to read that I’m listing it as my second read of 2021. It is a glowing centrepiece of the collection.

It is a triptych (set before, during and after WW2) about a farmer’s daughter, Matilda, who befriends a widow, Mrs Ashburton, who lives on the once lavish grounds of Challacombe Manor. Her husband had fought in the Great War and returned shellshocked from it. Mrs Ashburton never fully recovered from her husband’s fate and constantly dwelt on the past, and in particular on Challacombe Manor, her home.

Challacombe Manor takes on a huge symbolic significance for Matilda. It becomes a representation of the safety of the past. Matilda sees herself as the guardian of Mrs Ashburton’s memories, and in her desperate attempt to go back to the past, she finds herself as a resident in it many years later.

A beautifully paced story written in carefully chiselled, lyrical prose and full of pathos.

“The Collected Stories” is wonderful. It is timeless and has brought me endless pleasure. The genius of William Trevor is that he can entice you into his stories. I have reread many of the stories and know that I will continue to dip into it.

[Cillian Flood · Rating 4 out of 5]

That was far better than I expected it to be. It's short and brief, but it does a wonderful job of depicting in great detail the entirety of a person, a life, an era and a sense of place. We spend less than a hundred pages with Matilda, but she is a fully realized individual, so much so that it's almost surprising it's not autobiographical. Many books dedicate a lot more time trying to bring a character (or cast of characters, as Matilda is not alone) to life and fall short of this quaint little novelette. Succinct writing the likes of which I've never seen before.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was made into a tv series in 1979 starring Anna Calder Marshall. I remember really liking it, so why has the book sat on my shelf for 20 yrs? I bought a few Penguin 60's in 1995 and am just getting around to reading them.
This book consists of three short stories about Matilda, before, during and after WW II. Trevor writes the young girl Matilda very convincingly, her tale of not being able to let go of the past and not understanding why moved me to tears.

[Oliver Ho · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another beautiful, sad and subtly unsettling story (or collection of linked stories). It was fascinating how it moved from a story about a child's idyllic memory to one of loss, grief, and possible mental illness, and how it became a sort of ghost story by the end. I also loved how the story and narrator are rooted deeply in a particular place and time, to the point where the particular memories of that place and time almost become characters in their own right. A great short novel.

[Victoria Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read, compulsive, beautiful and thought provoking. A slice of life between the wars. I particularly liked the preparations for the tennis party.