Family Roundabout

by Richmal Crompton

First published in 1948, this novel is about the life of two families during the inter-war years. We are shown the matriarchs around whom their families spin; but whether they direct their children gently or forcefully, in the end they have to accept them as they are.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Historical Fiction, British Literature, 20th Century, Historical, Adult

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1948

About the author

Richmal Crompton Lamburn was initially trained as a schoolmistress but later became a popular English writer, best known for her Just William series of books, humorous short stories, and to a lesser extent adult fiction books.

Crompton's fiction centres around family and social life, dwelling on the constraints that they place on individuals while also nurturing them. This is best seen in her depiction of children as puzzled onlookers of society's ways. Nevertheless, the children, particularly William and his Outlaws, almost always emerge triumphant.

Reviews

[Tania · Rating 5 out of 5]

A family saga about two very different matriarchs. Mrs Fowler head of a family of old money, happily living in shabby gentility, comes across as rather vague but managed to steer her family without them noticing. Mrs Willoughby is a far more demanding character who expects, and for the most part gets obedience from her lot.

The story takes us from 1920 to 1939. Their children are mostly grown up and starting to get married. Helen Fowler marries Max Willoughby, tying the two families together. As the story progresses there are ups and downs for them all, and by the end the grandchildren are about to embark on their own adventures and Mrs Fowler suggests that life is like a roundabout.

I found it rather slow going to begin with, but It's one of those novels that creeps up on you. Halfway through I didn't want to put it down, and the rest of it just flew by.

[Diane Barnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can I say? 5 stars and Persephone novels seem to go hand in hand. This is a family saga that takes place between the years 1920 and 1939. Both Mrs. Fowler and Mrs. Willoughby are widows in a small provincial town near London. They both have 5 children who become involved with each other in various guises. They don't like each other very much because their parenting styles are so different. Mrs. Fowler is laid back and casual, preferring her children to find their own way through good times and bad. Mrs. Willoughby is a harridan who micro- manages every move her children (and grandchildren) make. All of the children are happy or miserable in their own circumstances. I loved the way this was told, showing scenes and events, then skipping ahead a few months or years to let you form your own opinion of what might have occurred in the interim.

" It's like a roundabout, isn't it? You get one lot more or less settled, and then, before you know where you are, it's all starting again with the next."
"It seems so", said Mrs. Willoughby.
"And you can't do anything to stop it".

Any of us with adult children know how true that is. I found myself sympathizing with Mrs. Fowler, as my own parenting style more closely matched hers. But Mrs. Willoughby, as controlling as she was, only wanted the best for her children as well. This book ends on the eve of WWII, so of course, more disruptions lay ahead of them all.

Once again, Persephone published a book that was a joy for me to read.

[Fiona MacDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

'All Arnold's heroes,' she said, 'are Arnold, thinly disguised and thickly idealised. I live with the original, so naturally they fail to thrill me.'

I always feel like I am coming home when I start a Persephone book, for I know that (almost) without a doubt I will be reading about comfortable places and people and enjoying sarcastic, satirical writing. Another thing I find is how wonderfully modern the writing is in many of these books, it really feels like you are reading something that is light years ahead of its time and that the various authors understand your very soul. Out of all the Persephone books I have read, very few have not warranted 5 stars - and this is no exception. I LOVED this. And I am so relieved I did, because Richmal Crompton was a writer I was desperate to become obsessed with so that I could collect all her "adult" books.
Family Roundabout is just that - a saga of two families through the years, going round and round but always coming back to the start. Recording their highs and lows, their relationships, their broken engagements, their escapes to London, their successes in certain jobs and much, much more. I can't say I really liked any of the characters. Most were vain, self-centred and completely uninterested in their relations unless they were in some way benefitting from them. Some were utterly foul (Belle, I'm talking to you!) and treated their family with contempt and narcissistic gas-lighting (so interesting to see gas-lighting actually put into action in a book that is not modern in the slightest.) Others were too scared to do their own thing, take their own steps or forge their own future in case it upset or interfered with someone else's plans. Most characters were either too wimpish or too brusque. That being said, I absolutely adored reading about their escapades and their lives, and found I was having more fun hearing of their affairs and the various scandals they entertained than I ever have watching a soap on the TV.
I have another Richmal Crompton book (Narcissa) next up to read, and am so over the moon that I have found an author I know I am really going to connect with through her writing. Hooray for becoming obsessed with another Persephone author!

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this novel is like watching a season of Downton Abbey: drama galore! I thought Richmal Crompton handled her large cast of characters incredibly well. Each character is very distinct and I never had any trouble keeping them all straight. The parallel structure of the story with the two families with two very different matriarchs at the head of each "clan" is cleverly constructed. Mrs. Fowler is the real heart of the story, though she often takes a more subtle role in it. Mrs. Wilhoughby is disconcertingly like the controlling, dictatorial Mrs. Ferrars in Sense and Sensibility, but there is more evolution and nuance to her character. I think you could make a case at the end of the novel that both Mrs. Wilhoughby and Mrs. Fowler have matured as individuals and have gained wisdom and (some) humility. Still I liked reading about Mrs. Fowler much more with her Milly/Millicent and her active passivity with her children.

The story does remind me of Dorothy Whipple's style/characterization in some ways. I wouldn't pick up this novel if you want the story of a happy marriage, but it does quickly and deftly take a peek into the inner workings of many different marriages. There are some sweet moments among the angst of so many characters trying to find their way to happiness and belonging. I could go into each character a lot more, but I would probably spend way too long writing!

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

The anticipation of opening a new Persephone is always a big part of the pleasure of reading one of these beautiful books. Luckily though I can generally be very confident of loving what is inside too, and certainly within a few sentences of starting this book I knew I loved it.

The story centres on the fortunes of two families in the years between WW1 and WW2 – the Fowler and the Willoughby families are the two principle families in Bellington. The Fowlers are an old genteel family, while the Willoughby’s owners of a local paper mill are the considerably wealthy new money. Both Mrs Fowler and Mrs Willoughby are widows, the parents of now adult children, they are rather different women. As the story starts the two families become united by the marriage of Helen Fowler and Max Willoughby. Mrs Willoughby is a deeply controlling woman, she holds sway over everything, from the mill itself to her grandchildren’s schooling. Her new daughter-in-law fits right in immediately proving to be very like Mrs Willoughby. Helen’s sister Anice marries a bookshop owner – a not very successful one at that – and as the years pass is driven to bitter envies of Helen, which affect her marriage and the relationships between her husband and their children. Peter Fowler is married to the spiteful vengeful Belle, beautiful and downright nasty – Peter is soon looking elsewhere. When the eldest Fowler Matthew returns from abroad he too falls under the spell of Belle. Oliver Willoughby has fallen for the youngest Fowler – Judy, while Cynthia Willoughby, Judy’s close friend since childhood has begun to write letters to an author she admires from afar.

The years pass and these relationships change and develop, children are born and grow up and Mrs Fowler and Mrs Willoughby too begin to age. Yet they are the witnesses to the continuing roundabout of family life, the same problems and mistakes being visited upon each generation. The characters are beautifully drawn and their relationships often painful.

I do love books like this that examine family members in detail, recreating the domestic situations and concerns of people from the inter war years. Persephone publishes a lot of novels like this – and that is why I love Persephone books. Yet when it comes to describing the book to someone else I find it is very difficult to do it justice. Richmal Crompton has created a world that is still very recognisable, the women are very strong and not always likeable, and the men are much weaker. The world is changing and as the young want to move with the times, or even move away from the suffocating little world of Bellington, the older generation like Mrs Willoughby are more resistant. There is a lovely timelessness to this novel – and it is surprising perhaps that it is such a page turner.

[Arpita (BagfullofBooks) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Persephone book looks at the complex relationship between two neighboring families, the Fowlers and the Willoughbys, whose outlooks on life, are on one hand in opposition to one another, but on the other hand, find their paths unavoidably intertwined. Both the matriarch’s of the families, keep a close eye on the fates of their beloved families, but employ different styles. Mrs Willoughby, has control of the family fortune, and dictates the actions of her family members by way of controlling the money she bestows upon them. Benevolent Mrs Fowler, watches silently, as her children fall in and out of their individual problems. Most of her children appeal for her help when they require it. But despite, however, much the mothers’ try to resolve their children’s problems, new troubles, recur in cyclical events, almost like a roundabout.

[Shauna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really enjoyable book about two families in the inter-war years. My only slight criticism is that there were maybe too many main characters and the story was not really long enough to do justice to the plotlines. Highly recommended.

[Dianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not sure I'll ever understand the pull these British books have on me. They're so slow and laid-back, and seem to be written so impartially, and yet they keep me turning the pages.

Family Roundabout is the story of two familes, each headed by a widowed matron. Their sons and daughters marry or run away, live lives respectable or otherwise, live happily or tragically. They have children who grow up to fill their old niches. Wow, when you try to summarize the book like that it just loses all its charm.

Probably my favorite part about this book was Mrs. Fowler with her Millicent/Millie characters—her real self vs. her wife/mother mantle that she usually wears.

I'm going to stop writing this review now because it makes this book sound very boring—and it's not!

[We Are All Mad Here · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a story of exactly what it is to be a mother, told by way of the lives of two very different mothers and their adult or near-adult children, first published in 1948 and proof that as much as we have changed, we have also remained exactly the same. It reminded me of Dorothy Whipple, but only because I became familiar with Dorothy Whipple first - had it been the other way around I'm sure I'd have said Dorothy Whipple reminds me of Richmal Crompton.

In any case, I am grateful to have come to read both of them.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like so many interwar domestic dramas published by Persephone, this one kept me turning the pages, but it's not one I'll be rereading. There are at least a dozen major characters, and the only one I actually liked was Mrs. Fowler, and she does very little -- mostly she just keeps her place at the center of the family roundabout and observes it with bemusement. I loved the last chapter though The friendship of the two aging matriarchs was quite touching.

[Girl with her Head in a Book · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review recently published here: http://girlwithherheadinabook.co.uk/2...

I felt that it was less of a case of me reading this as it was gobbling it whole – I began it on Monday and then by Thursday morning had finished it with a faint sense of sadness that it was all over. Having been a long-term Just William fan, I was surprised to realise that I knew almost nothing about her adult fiction and upon discovering this in the library, I dived in with delight. I am a bit of a 1940s enthusiast, so this book first published in 1948 was right up my alley. Telling the story of two intertwined but all often opposing families, Family Roundabout depicts the unravelling of domestic ties and asks some poignantly timeless questions – what does it mean to be ‘successful’? What is a ‘successful parent’, a ‘successful child’? Is there any truly tried and tested way to bring one about?

The two clans at the centre of the novel are the Fowlers and the Willoughbys. The Fowlers are fading gentry while the Willoughbys are up-and-coming trade people. Both families are headed by a widowed matriarch but the two women could hardly be more different, with Mrs Willoughby ruling her family with an iron fist, managing the cluster of ‘poor relations’ while Mrs Fowler takes a more background and benevolent approach, remaining comfortably at home for when her children approach her for advice. They are each mother to five children and on the afternoon that the novel begins, Helen Fowler becomes engaged to Max Willoughby, thus linking the two families irrevocably. Family Roundabout charts the progress of the two families over the next twenty years as they fall in love, out of love, marry, bear children and generally live happily or unhappily.

Doubling and mirroring is a recurrent theme within the novel. Mrs Fowler was very much in love with her husband and for his sake, she rescinded her own natural intelligence as he did not like the idea of a clever wife – she chose to be the apparently foolish Milly rather than Millicent. Throughout the novel, Milly admonishes Millicent for the occasional acerbic remark that creeps out, for being a little too sharp and for generally not behaving the soft and gentle figure which her children have come to expect.

It is not just internal doubling however – Helen marries Max who is rich while her older sister Anice marries Martin who is poor. Tormented by the difference in standards of living between herself and Helen, Anice becomes shrewish and difficult, an unpleasant version of herself. The two youngest children from each family, Judy Fowler and Cynthia Willoughby, are fast friends as school-girls but grow far apart, their romantic fates often at odds with each other. Mrs Willoughby’s two grown-up daughters Florence and Gertrude are indistinguishable from each other, wearing matching clothes and each competing over who can have the best behaved children.

On more of an overview, the two families rival each other – Mrs Willoughby thinks very little of Mrs Fowler’s laissez-faire parenting, given that she herself decides on everything including her grandchildren’s education and her married daughters’ home furnishings. There is a true deliciousness to so many of the episodes, particularly around Helen’s wedding when Mrs Fowler’s inner Millicent wins out as she seeks to block Mrs Willoughby’s interference. One realises how deeply the rivalry has hold though when the first true blow is struck against Mrs Willoughby’s autocracy when her troublesome granddaughter Jessica declares that she wishes that she had a different grandmother, ‘someone kind, someone like Mrs Fowler’.

Yet still, no matter how often Mrs Willoughby is portrayed as over-interfering, Crompton makes certain that the reader is aware of her redeeming features. When Mrs Fowler’s most neglected grandchild Gillian comes to her in a state of worry about her lack of party dress, her generally dilatory grandmother decides that direct action is necessary, so channels her inner Mrs Willoughby about what would be the best course of action. There is a lovely note at the end of the novel when Mrs Fowler thanks a bemused Mrs Willoughby for her help with this. Another wonderful moment came when Helen, who idolises her mother-in-law, approaches her with evidence of her husband’s infidelity. Mrs Willoughby marches straight to Max’s office and stares down the offending secretary, hands the girl her salary for that week and the next, looking at her with such disgust that she seizes her coat and flees, never to return. Good work.

Perhaps the most dramatic episode comes from Peter, second son to Mrs Fowler. Married to the vicious and manipulative Belle, he finds himself drawn to the then infant Gillian’s nurse and the ensuing fall out is tragic. Peter had adored his elder brother Matthew and missed him dreadfully when Matthew emigrated – consoling himself with childhood memories of their shared boyhood during difficult episodes with Belle and longing for his elder brother’s counsel. The distance that Belle ensures is put between the two men seems especially vindictive.

We sense Crompton’s mistrust of Belle, defining her solely by her beauty – even in her name – and allowing her narcissism to define her interactions. Belle is the woman who is only interested in taking her daughter out to the park if they are in co-ordinating outfits, who is determined to be noticed first and last and throws childish tantrums if she does not get her way. Family Roundabout does not glamourise divorce, indeed it rather demonstrates the long-lasting ramifications, but Belle is like the black widow spider, devouring her prey – the only truly villainous character within the novel.

I suppose that I loved Family Roundabout for many of the same reasons that I loved The Cazalet Chronicles – I like a good family saga and if it’s set around the 1940s then so much the better. Still, the true pleasure is in the detail of Crompton’s writing which veers from the tragic to the deadpan hilarious. Aunt Bessie, one of the Willoughby poor relations, constantly mistakes Max for his late father Josiah and continually advises him on how to alleviate constipation, from which Josiah apparently suffered. A lull in one of the family dinners allows the other characters to overhear her earnestly recommending to Max, ‘And there’s always Senna, Josiah. I’ve never known Senna to fail.’

The final episode as the two battle-worn matriarchs sit down to a game of cards is beautiful – old hostilities set aside, they acknowledge quietly the patterns of impossible behaviour continuing into the next generation, that family is itself an on-going roundabout which is ultimately impossible to keep on track. As Mrs Fowler admits to herself, she might have done better as a parent had she been more like Mrs Willoughby, but the reverse was also true. The era of Sunday teas served up by Cook may have passed but the question of how best to help one’s children is a perennial one and was treated here with great sensitivity. I really hope I can unearth some more of Crompton’s adult fiction – she is clearly much more than simply the creator of Just William.

[Beth Bonini · Rating 4 out of 5]

As far as I'm concerned, family life is ALWAYS a rich vein to mine.
In this novel, there are two families -- both headed up by a widowed mother, both middle-class (one is more genteel shabby, while the other is more nouveau prosperous), and both with five children. The mothers take a different line: one is bossy and managing, while the other is nonjudgmental and noninterfering. But neither approach is presented is wholly better than the other, and one of the mothers acknowledges, rather ruefully, that each could do with a touch of the other. The families become intertwined as the novel dips in and out of their lives at random intervals.

I loved the title of this novel, and the way that the author cleverly draws out the metaphor. My mother-in-law has 5 children, and I've often reflected that there is always at least one of the children in crisis. Even at 81, my MIL is still the hub of her family -- and still having to, gently, rescue or prop up various of her children.

[Rosemary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Family Roundabout tells the story of two families in a northern English town through the interwar period, approx 1920-39. The Willoughbys are the owners of the factory in the town, and have become rich in the last generation. The Fowlers are an ‘older’ family with more class but less money. Both have children in their teens and twenties when the story opens, with a Fowler girl engaged to a Willoughby boy, and both families are led by a widowed mother. Mrs Fowler rules with a gentle glove, and Mrs Willoughby with a rod of iron, but neither of them can prevent unhappiness coming into the lives of their children.

Richmal Crompton is best known as the author of the ‘Just William’ books about a naughty boy and his ‘gang’, but she also wrote a lot of novels for adults, which never had the same success. I liked this book but it didn’t seem that special to me. It would have benefited from some of the humour that she shows in the William books.

[Alexa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I kept getting sucked into various storylines only to have it switch to another one. Wish the book had been longer!

[Louise Culmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Fowlers and the Willoughbys are two prominent families in a small town called Bellingham. The Willoughbys are rich and successful, having made a fortune in trade. The Fowlers are poorer but also posher than the Willoughbys. At the head of the families are two widows. Mrs Willoughby, a strong minded managing woman who generally makes her children do what she wants. Mrs Fowler, more relaxed and laid back, exercises no apparent control over her children and lets them go their own way. But has some quiet unnoticed influence. Mrs Fowler’s daughter Helen is to marry Mrs Willoughby’s son Max, thus linking the two families. Over the course of nineteen years, from 1920 to 1939, we follow the fortunes of the Willoughbys and the Fowlers, their various ups and downs, their marriages, some happy and some not, the growing number of grandchildren etc. Mrs Fowler is the most amusing character, but everyone in the book interested me. And it is the kind of book where you wonder what happens to the characters next, which is always enjoyable. The book ends on the eve of WW2, and I would like to know how all of them got on in the war.

[lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I shall never belong to you . . . However much I loved you, I should only belong to myself. I'm that sort of person."

Every time I go to review a Persephone book, I think this just was such a Persephone book!

Meaning, it's simply and beautifully written, comforting and thoughtful, but also a little nostalgic and sad, with a profound understanding of human relationships and emotions and a delightful amount of domestic detail.

Can you tell I wrote my undergrad dissertation on them?

Family Roundabout was no exception to all of the above. Richmal Crompton effortlessly moves through over a decade in the lives of two very different families. I will admit that I didn't grow quite as attached to most of the characters as I would have hoped — I found the outright selfishness of the Fowler children rather frustrating, though I absolutely adored Mrs. Fowler herself. I especially loved the very slow friendship that the two matriarchs managed to build over time, as well as the equal attention that was placed on these two older widows' thoughts and concerns, as much as those of each of their children.

Again, I wish I'd been able to love the characters a little more, but this was a very sweet and overall satisfying read, as well as another Persephone checked off my list.

28/152

[Teri · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to give this book four stars because I loved the characters so much but somehow overall it’s a three. I still want to recommend it to others so we can discuss the characters. Mrs. Fowler will remain in my mind for a long time, I think, and I should aspire to be more like her than Mrs. Willoughby.

[Victoria Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed the book. The story involves the reader from word one and doesn’t let up...Its both stunning and relentlessly readable. A marvelous way to kick off a new reading year.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a lovely read! Two families, one run by the formidable nouveau riche Mrs Willoughby and the other by Mrs Fowler, old money and rather whimsical (although her daffy Milly is a disguise for the more "knowing" Millicent. The trials and tribulations of the sons and daughters who go careering off and find their own sorts of happiness and lots of unhappiness. Wry and funny and compelling.

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have enjoyed all the Persephone books I have read and this is no exception. Written by the author of the William books, it is a family saga covering about 10 years. It is a light and easy read although it covers themes of domestic abuse, adultery, hero worship, maternal domination and loneliness. It is not depressing, but it does make you think, mainly about how lucky we are in our lives today. Being a woman between the wars was a restricting business! I loved this book and I will reread it one day.

[Chrystal · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Richmal Crompton might not have written great literature, but her novels are so enjoyable; the sentences are so smooth and effortless. Not an earth-shattering story, but never a dull moment. Her characters are flawed and believable, especially her elderly characters.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story of two English families takes place in the years between WWI and WWII. The Fowlers are the former town gentry, and the Willoughbys who own the paper mill could be said to be the new town gentry. Their relationships and doings, sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic, are often seen from the point of view of one or the other of the two family matriarchs, the accepting but sometimes ineffectual Mrs Fowler and the forceful but sometimes ineffective Mrs Willoughby. In one situation, Mrs Fowler tries to think like Mrs Willoughby to solve a problem with her granddaughter, Gillian.

"Perhaps if I pretend to be Mrs Willoughby, it will come to me, thought Mrs Fowler....She stood in the middle of her bedroom and pretended to be Mrs Willoughby...thinking herself with desperate intensity into that brisk, efficient personality. She glanced at the mirror on the wall, half expecting to see an eagle's beak in place of her own nose. She didn't but in that moment she knew what Mrs Willoughby would have done..."

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set in the modernist period, although written in 1948, it is an excellent study of character: one that encourages you to accurately classify your own. Variety abounds; very sharp. Nice pace; a shapely plot. Beautiful phrasing in terms of how Crompton expresses her character's thoughts & appearance. Some were so articulately expressed in relation to Crompton's descriptions of their personalities; that it brought her characters off the page, and into life. Fortunately, it lacks the ostentatious quality that so often marked the works of the modernist era, following the Victorian. Instead, it reads as a simple and stable continuation of affairs, minus the celebrational content that marked society moving forwards.

[Melinda Nelsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hard to believe that after reading the readable "Twilight" series that this book could be considered a page-turner, but it was. Just a lovely story. Well-drawn characters you really care about as you're drawn into the day-to-day lives of two families. Timeless scenarios and the human nature that tries to grapple with them.

[Fiona Compton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A most enjoyable book. It seems that Richmal's adult books are about families and their interaction with one another. She is particularly good at creating the characters and emotions of the children in the family. Perhaps that is why her "William" series was so popular. In the present days of trouble and political turmoil it is pleasant to be transported back to gentler days.

[Row · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very Cazalet. Very wonderful.

[Trisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another winner from Persephone Press, this one is set in a small town in England in the years between the two world wars. It’s about two large families whose members are connected to each other by marriage and proximity and whose lives revolve around each family’s matriarch (like the “roundabout” of the title.)

Gentle Mrs. Fowler and autocratic Mrs. Willoughby are almost mirror opposites of each other, as are their parenting styles. Mrs. Fowler has been lenient with her children, allowing them a great deal of freedom while making it clear that she is there to support them. That approach is a stark contrast to the way Mrs. Willoughby has always dominated every aspect of her children’s lives even into their adulthood, ruling them and their children with a firm hand and an iron will.

As different as they are, both women take their parenting roles very seriously: "It's like a sort of roundabout, isn’t it? You get one lot more or less settled and then, before you know where you are, it’s all starting again with the next.”

The novel is a carefully crafted family saga giving the reader a chance to follow what happens to each member of both families as the years pass and they try, not always so successfully, to deal with the complicated situations in which they find themselves.

This is clearly a book where the women are the strongest – although they're not always seen in the best light since some of them have rough edges that make them less appealing. Most all of the men leave a lot to be desired. Crompton paints them as being either weak and reluctant to stand up for themselves, or else they’re pompous, vain and self-indulgent. Either way they don’t make very good husbands, which is probably one reason there aren’t any happy marriages in this novel.

But in the end this is a book about mothers and the impact they have on their children. And while it’s up to the reader to decide which parenting approach has been the most successful I’m inclined to agree with Mrs. Fowler who suspects that “I’d be better if I had more of her in me. . .And perhaps she’d be better if she had more of me in her. . .”

This book is a wonderful example of what you’re likely to find in a book published by Persephone Press and it’s why my collection of these beautiful books with their distinctive grey covers keeps growing. As the Persephone folks say on their website (https://persephonebooks.co.uk/):
Our books look beautiful because we believe that, whether they are on an office desk, by the Aga, or hanging in a bag over the handles of a pram, it is important to take pleasure from how they look and feel. . . Mostly, though, a grey Persephone cover is a guarantee of a good read. In fact, by far the most important criteria is that we only publish books that we completely, utterly love.

[Karon Buxton · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a gem ; family drama & complexities are one of my favourite troupes. This book was chosen by my Persephone bookclub & eveyone of us has loved it , along with high wages this is my favourite . What a knack the author has of all the complicated personalities within families. It’s the sort of book where nothing happens and then everything happens , none of the characters have really made the right choices in marriage. Set between the two world war years and based upon two almost rivalry families within the same town and two widowed ladies with two very different styles of parenting guiding or not, interfering or not , in the marriages and life’s of their children. It’s definitely a vanished world , a truly excellent novel, a lot of similarities with the wonderful cazalet chronicles perhaps EJH took inspiration from this little gem . Won’t give anything away all I’ll say is the character of Bella was truly unhinged and into today’s world she’d have been reported to child services ! Highly recommended 😀

[Gerardine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was drawn to this book because the author, Richmal Crompton, also the author of the famous William books, favorite reads of my childhood, was a High School Teacher of Geek and Latin who turned to writing the William Books in order to make some money. The tales of the scruffy anti-hero, William, became famous and brought the author enough money for her to retire quite young.

"Family Roundabout" is a novel about two families, entwined through marriage and friendships. The setting in small town England in the 1920's is pleasantly archaic; yet the action, and the dialogue seem familiar and modern. The problems faced by the characters are universal and timeless, creating an immediacy that makes us think we are part of the family.
My edition is one of the elegantly produced Persephone Books.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read lots of the William books, both when I was William’s age, and again when my son was that age. But I had no idea until now that Richmal Compton wrote adult fiction as well. So now, having discovered this novel, I’d gladly read some more by her. The characters of the two interconnected families, and particularly the two matriarchs, are very well drawn. And the contrasts between the characters and the resulting relationship complexities are all quite believable. My main criticism is a lack of signposting between chapters; sometimes one follows on directly from the last, and other times you’re taken by surprise by a gap of several months or even years.