Virginia Fly Is Drowning

by Angela Huth

Quiet, clever, sensible Virginia Fly, still a virgin at thirty-one, harbours erotic thoughts of an intensity and vividness unimagined by her suburban parents, her unassuming elderly suitor Hans or even her virile American pen-friend of twelve years, Charles Whitmore Oakhampton Jr—Charlie. When Charlie announces that he is, at last, to visit England, it seems too much to hope that he should make Virginia's dreams of passion reality. Yet his arrival coincides with her appearance on a television documentary and suddenly Virginia is presented with a bewildering variety of opportunities to rid herself of her virginity. The only question remaining seems to be whether any of them—even the suave and delicious stranger Ulick Brand—could possibly fulfil her considerable expectations. Huth is the daughter of the actor Harold Huth. She left school at age 16 in order to paint and to study art in both France and Italy. At 18 she travelled, mostly alone, across the United States before returning to England to work on a variety of newspapers and magazines. She married journalist and travel writer Quentin Crewe and soon became known most for her writing, having written three collections of short stories and eleven novels. She also writes plays for radio, television and stage, and is a well-known freelance journalist, critic and broadcaster. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Genres: Roman

189 pages, Paperback

First published September 28, 2011

About the author

Daughter of actor Harold Huth, english novelist Angela Huth married journalist and travel writer Quentin Crewe in the 1960s and with him had a daughter. She presented programmes on the BBC, including How It Is and Why and Man Alive.

She also writes plays for radio, television and stage, and is a well-known freelance journalist, critic and broadcaster. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

She has been married to a don, James Howard-Johnston, since 1978. They live in Warwickshire and have one daughter, Eugenie Teasley.

Reviews

[Good Books Good Friends · Rating 2 out of 5]

J'ai été un peu déçue, je m'attendais à plus. Mon intérêt a décru au cours de ma lecture et la fin ne m'a pas plu...

[Jenn Sevnine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book a bit hard going at times. It fell flat and boring and not a single character had enough life to identify with them. It is written in a way that keeps it from being a timeless classic yet you can't put your finger on a particular decade either. The very ending was the best part of the book and even that dragged on more than it should. I won't be trying any other books by Ms. Huth.

[Arachnae · Rating 3 out of 5]

As one of the Cosmo generation I remember this caused a stir at the time (and had a BBC outing with Anna Massey, perfectly cast as Virginia). I therefore was intrigued to pick it up in a charity shop. Sadly, it’s best regarded as a period piece. Hard to feel sorry for someone who has denied themselves all agency in their lives, not just romantically. Hardly surprising she has not been swept off her feet. Nor would she be. Her eventual choice therefore seems entirely right and rational, which is clearly not what the author intended.

[Arnaud · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ça se lit bien mais le message dans son ensemble et certains passages m’ont dérangé, notamment vis-à-vis du peu de considération de la femme dans la société. Je ne sais pas si c’est volontaire ou seulement très arriéré comme pensée mais on dirait que le livre date des années 60 alors qu’il a été publié récemment.

[Aurelia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very funny

[Alexandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

https://commeparenchantements.wordpre...
J’avoue être assez mitigée concernant ce roman. J’ai trouvé le début vraiment très bien. Très bien rythmé ! Et puis au fur et à mesure de la lecture, je trouvais que ça s’essouflait. C’est dommage. L’histoire n’a rien de spécial, mais je m’attachait vraiment au personnage de Virginia. Et puis, après avoir dépassé la moitié du roman, j’ai plus ou moins décrochée… La fin m’a laissé, et bien sur ma faim. Elle était trop rapide, et je ne m’attendais pas à cela. J’avoue que j’aurais préférée avoir une autre fin.
Mais tout cela n’empêche pas que c’était une lecture plutôt sympas, et légère. Et aussi très rapide, car les chapitres se lisent assez vite. De plus, c’est une jolie écriture. Mais voila, je n’ai pas été convaincue malheureusement. C’est la première fois que je lis un roman de cette auteure. Celui-ci était écrit en 1972 et vient juste d’être traduit en français. J’en lirais peut-être d’autres un jour, en espérant que ça me plaise un peu plus.

[Sandra · Rating 1 out of 5]

Speed-read in an effort to clear space on my bookshelves. Having enjoyed 'The Land Girls' I bought three others by Angela Huth during the 1990s, but remembered none as fondly. Nothing to do with the quality of the writing but the sheer dreary deadweight of the characters therein whose activities now seem sadly dated.

[Debbie Mortimer · Rating 3 out of 5]

An alright read. Have never read anything else written by Angela Huth so have nothing to compare it with.