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The Blush
Amongst the characters in this collection of short stories are the upright Mrs Allen, who unwittingly provides an alibi for her slackly corseted home help, and Emily, who has written fluent, amusing letters to a distinguished novelist for 10 years but descends into small talk when they meet.
Contents:
The Ambush
The Blush
The Letter-writers
A Troubled State of Mind
The True Primitive
The Rose, the Mauve, the White
Summer Schools
Perhaps a Family Failing
Good-bye, Good-bye
Poor Girl
Hare Park
You'll Enjoy It When You Get There
Contents:
The Ambush
The Blush
The Letter-writers
A Troubled State of Mind
The True Primitive
The Rose, the Mauve, the White
Summer Schools
Perhaps a Family Failing
Good-bye, Good-bye
Poor Girl
Hare Park
You'll Enjoy It When You Get There
217 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1958
7 people are currently reading
212 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth Taylor
71 books524 followersElizabeth Taylor (née Coles) was a popular English novelist and short story writer. Elizabeth Coles was born in Reading, Berkshire in 1912. She was educated at The Abbey School, Reading, and worked as a governess, as a tutor and as a librarian.
In 1936, she married John William Kendall Taylor, a businessman. She lived in Penn, Buckinghamshire, for almost all her married life.
Her first novel, At Mrs. Lippincote's, was published in 1945 and was followed by eleven more. Her short stories were published in various magazines and collected in four volumes. She also wrote a children's book.
Taylor's work is mainly concerned with the nuances of "everyday" life and situations, which she writes about with dexterity. Her shrewd but affectionate portrayals of middle class and upper middle class English life won her an audience of discriminating readers, as well as loyal friends in the world of letters.
She was a friend of the novelist Ivy Compton-Burnett and of the novelist and critic Robert Liddell.
Elizabeth Taylor died at age 63 of cancer.
Anne Tyler once compared Taylor to Jane Austen, Barbara Pym and Elizabeth Bowen -- "soul sisters all," in Tyler's words . In recent years new interest has been kindled by movie makers in her work. French director Francois Ozon, has made "The Real Life of Angel Deverell" which will be released in early 2005. American director Dan Ireland's screen adaptation of Taylor's "Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont" came out in this country first in 2006 and has made close to $1 million. A British distributor picked it up at Cannes, and the movie was released in England in 2009.
In 1936, she married John William Kendall Taylor, a businessman. She lived in Penn, Buckinghamshire, for almost all her married life.
Her first novel, At Mrs. Lippincote's, was published in 1945 and was followed by eleven more. Her short stories were published in various magazines and collected in four volumes. She also wrote a children's book.
Taylor's work is mainly concerned with the nuances of "everyday" life and situations, which she writes about with dexterity. Her shrewd but affectionate portrayals of middle class and upper middle class English life won her an audience of discriminating readers, as well as loyal friends in the world of letters.
She was a friend of the novelist Ivy Compton-Burnett and of the novelist and critic Robert Liddell.
Elizabeth Taylor died at age 63 of cancer.
Anne Tyler once compared Taylor to Jane Austen, Barbara Pym and Elizabeth Bowen -- "soul sisters all," in Tyler's words . In recent years new interest has been kindled by movie makers in her work. French director Francois Ozon, has made "The Real Life of Angel Deverell" which will be released in early 2005. American director Dan Ireland's screen adaptation of Taylor's "Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont" came out in this country first in 2006 and has made close to $1 million. A British distributor picked it up at Cannes, and the movie was released in England in 2009.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
January 29, 2025
These stories very conveniently divided themselves into 5-star and 4-star reads. I think any collection that doesn't contain one 3-star story is worth its weight, so I am giving an overall 5-star rating.
My favorites by an edge were:
The Letter Writers in which two pen-pals finally meet in person and discover, as we often do, that they were fonder of each other in the long-distance relationship.
Goodbye, Goodbye - A story of an ill-fated love affair that was poignant and genuine. I have outgrown romance, but not so much so that I cannot feel heartache.
Poor Girl - Totally unexpected foray into the unknowable. Had a very Wharton ghost story vibe to it.
And finally, You'll Enjoy it When You Get There, which was a delightfully humorous look at the angst of adolescents and venturing out into the scary world of grown-ups.
What I love the most about all these stories is how different they are from one another. Each is fantastic in its own way, but none of them feels any direct kinship to the other. The stories I have not mentioned here are all 4 and 5-star reads and could make a list of favorites just as easily as these did.
My favorites by an edge were:
The Letter Writers in which two pen-pals finally meet in person and discover, as we often do, that they were fonder of each other in the long-distance relationship.
Goodbye, Goodbye - A story of an ill-fated love affair that was poignant and genuine. I have outgrown romance, but not so much so that I cannot feel heartache.
Poor Girl - Totally unexpected foray into the unknowable. Had a very Wharton ghost story vibe to it.
And finally, You'll Enjoy it When You Get There, which was a delightfully humorous look at the angst of adolescents and venturing out into the scary world of grown-ups.
What I love the most about all these stories is how different they are from one another. Each is fantastic in its own way, but none of them feels any direct kinship to the other. The stories I have not mentioned here are all 4 and 5-star reads and could make a list of favorites just as easily as these did.
September 30, 2021
Doesn’t get much better, if this is your kind of thing (and why would this not be your kind of thing?)
August 26, 2021
How I love just picking up random books published by Virago (easy to pick out that dark green spine) and knowing that I'll almost certainly like them. This is a collection of short stories of domestic life, situations, and relationships, each full of wit, empathy, and subtle characterization. I'd never read Taylor before and will certainly be looking for more; happily, Virago has published several more of her novels and short story collections.
May 27, 2025
Elizabeth Taylor is the owner of a small, delicatessen called The Blush, in which there’s a selection of finely cured stories of great subtlety. Ms Taylor works the accounts by night and the counter by day, where she oversees the display of her deliciously crafted stories. When you approach one and slowly read its contents, you see Ms Taylor’s face in the corner of your eye, not intimidatingly, but overlooking with a sense of curiosity which story you have chosen to read. You get the sense that Ms Taylor has harboured these stories for many years, and only now she’s decided to share them with the world by opening her shop, The Blush.
I hope to visit many more of Ms Taylor’s shops.
I hope to visit many more of Ms Taylor’s shops.
April 22, 2012
I started reading these lovely stories the evening before I went to the Elizabeth Taylor day at Battle library in Reading. I had a lovely read of it going down on the train and finished it on the train coming home after a lovely day talking and listening to others talk, about Elizabeth Taylor. I will write another post about that though.
There are 12 stories in this collection – I enjoyed all the stories, they are beautiful, minutely observed and intuitively drawn. Her characters are so immediately recognisable, as Taylor was such a faithful chronicler of people, ordinary middle class people particularly - although she also observes servants and their like with absolute understanding and sympathy. I am not going to try and describe each story – but there are a few I wish to draw attention to, as particularly good examples of Elizabeth Taylor’s stories. In “The Letter Writers” we have a middle aged woman meeting the man to whom she has written to for years – as Taylor describes it…
“the crisis of meeting for the first time the person whom she knew best in the world.”
It is almost inevitably a meeting that is far from what it might have been. The whole is a wonderfully devastating snap shot of a sad lonely woman and the enormity of a meeting which could only ever be disappointing.
“The Ambush” is a touching examination of grief, as a young woman goes to stay with the woman who might have become her mother-in-law had her son not been killed in a car accident.
“Her irritation suddenly heeled over into grief and she dropped her brush, stunned, appalled, as the monstrous pain leapt upon her.”
In “Summer Schools” two middle aged sisters, who share their home, each take a holiday. One sister visits an old married school friend; the other attends a summer lecture course. They each find their experiences to be unsatisfactory, and they are forced to recognise the lives they are leading for what they are.
“Of recent years she had often tried to escape the memory of two maiden-ladies who lived near her home when she and Melanie were girls. So sharp-tongued and cross-looking, they had seemed to be as old as could be, yet may have been no more than in their fifties, she now thought.”
Other stories are darkly comic, such as The Blush – the title story – which is very short – Mrs Allen a sensible middle aged lady finds she become an unwitting alibi for her domestic’s extra marital carryings on. In “Perhaps a family Failing” a young woman marries a man who like his father is possibly a little too fond of the drink – and although it is blackly comic, it is at the same time subtly devastating.
There are 12 stories in this collection – I enjoyed all the stories, they are beautiful, minutely observed and intuitively drawn. Her characters are so immediately recognisable, as Taylor was such a faithful chronicler of people, ordinary middle class people particularly - although she also observes servants and their like with absolute understanding and sympathy. I am not going to try and describe each story – but there are a few I wish to draw attention to, as particularly good examples of Elizabeth Taylor’s stories. In “The Letter Writers” we have a middle aged woman meeting the man to whom she has written to for years – as Taylor describes it…
“the crisis of meeting for the first time the person whom she knew best in the world.”
It is almost inevitably a meeting that is far from what it might have been. The whole is a wonderfully devastating snap shot of a sad lonely woman and the enormity of a meeting which could only ever be disappointing.
“The Ambush” is a touching examination of grief, as a young woman goes to stay with the woman who might have become her mother-in-law had her son not been killed in a car accident.
“Her irritation suddenly heeled over into grief and she dropped her brush, stunned, appalled, as the monstrous pain leapt upon her.”
In “Summer Schools” two middle aged sisters, who share their home, each take a holiday. One sister visits an old married school friend; the other attends a summer lecture course. They each find their experiences to be unsatisfactory, and they are forced to recognise the lives they are leading for what they are.
“Of recent years she had often tried to escape the memory of two maiden-ladies who lived near her home when she and Melanie were girls. So sharp-tongued and cross-looking, they had seemed to be as old as could be, yet may have been no more than in their fifties, she now thought.”
Other stories are darkly comic, such as The Blush – the title story – which is very short – Mrs Allen a sensible middle aged lady finds she become an unwitting alibi for her domestic’s extra marital carryings on. In “Perhaps a family Failing” a young woman marries a man who like his father is possibly a little too fond of the drink – and although it is blackly comic, it is at the same time subtly devastating.
August 31, 2018
4.5 Stars
As regular readers of my blog will know, I’ve written before about my admiration for Taylor – in particular, her ability to capture a character in one or two perfectly judged sentences. In almost every case, these individuals are drawn in such a way that conveys an acute understanding of their immediate situation – their hopes and dreams, their day-to-day preoccupations and concerns.
Even though these stories were written sixty years ago, the emotions they portray are still universally recognisable today. Here we see people facing up to dashed dreams, acute social embarrassment and the realities of their lonely, marginalised lives.
To read my review, please click here:
https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2018...
As regular readers of my blog will know, I’ve written before about my admiration for Taylor – in particular, her ability to capture a character in one or two perfectly judged sentences. In almost every case, these individuals are drawn in such a way that conveys an acute understanding of their immediate situation – their hopes and dreams, their day-to-day preoccupations and concerns.
Even though these stories were written sixty years ago, the emotions they portray are still universally recognisable today. Here we see people facing up to dashed dreams, acute social embarrassment and the realities of their lonely, marginalised lives.
To read my review, please click here:
https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2018...
July 13, 2024
Some reviewers on here are calling Taylor's stories conventional. I think it's easy to forget that she co-invented and shaped what we today consider the conventions of contemporary short-story writing: the loose structure, the shifting focus, the half-open ending, the lack of plot and punchline, the focus on atmosphere and vibes.
Did I say lack of punchline? Two or three times here Taylor throws in a little zinger at the end, the final one at the end of the book had me laughing out loud on public transportation.
TW: two stories in this collection deal with sexual abuse, Thine Is the Power and Poor Girl.
Did I say lack of punchline? Two or three times here Taylor throws in a little zinger at the end, the final one at the end of the book had me laughing out loud on public transportation.
TW: two stories in this collection deal with sexual abuse, Thine Is the Power and Poor Girl.
November 18, 2020
Overall I really enjoyed this. Some of the stories were better than others (part of why I dislike story collections generally), but even the ones I didn’t like as much were really charming. They’re all very different vignettes of life and really enjoyable.
June 30, 2011
This is the first time I have read this author and I found it was a lovely, quiet, very English read. This is a collection of the author's short stories and the only criticism I had was that I wanted more of each story! I liken this to Maugham who is the kind of author I read over and over. I think Taylor will be the same way. The story doesn't bash you over the head and really uses language so beautifully that I can easily escape but not leave my own world.
December 24, 2017
Taylor's writing is always a pleasure. Her style (understated, incisively observed, masterfully controlled) makes for a subtly powerful effect whether she's dealing with comedy, social embarrassment, hope, regret - or, most often, all of the above.
April 14, 2008
There's a story about a spinsterly Emily who has been writing to a man for years and suddenly she has the chance to meet him. So sad. I have a fondness for any story involving a spinsterly Emily.
April 11, 2013
Beautiful, sparse telling writing of the kind only to be found by a certain breed of mid-century female British authors.
If you haven't discovered Elizabeth Taylor yet, you are in for a treat...
If you haven't discovered Elizabeth Taylor yet, you are in for a treat...
May 28, 2025
It's rare that I like every story in a collection, but I did. It was thoughtfully compiled, as well, with each story different from the last.
January 26, 2008
No, it isn't that Elizabeth Taylor. This is a collection of short stories. I loved the author's character development. I was really drawn in to their lives. What I did not like was that the stories ended abruptly with no closure. I really wanted to know what happened to these people that she made so vividly real! It was often like walking out after the first act of a really good play.
March 17, 2013
Good 1950's short stories about dashed expectations and the regret inherent in aging. These reminded me most of Elizabeth Spencer, whose "keen eye and ear for domestic detail will interest those with a penchant for John Cheever." (from Publisher's Weekly). I think the same of Taylor, although she chronicles British life rather than American.
August 13, 2008
A couple of these stories I really loved; some of them were awfully conventional.
August 2, 2010
1958. Well written and some stories of quite some interest, and yet I don't think much of it will stick with me. I don't somehow connect with very much of it.
April 7, 2024
THE AMBUSH ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
THE BLUSH ⭐️⭐️
THE LETTER-WRITERS ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A TROUBLED STATE OF MIND ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
THE TRUE PRIMITIVE ⭐️⭐️
THE ROSE, THE MAUVE, THE WHITE ⭐️⭐️⭐️
SUMMER SCHOOLS ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
PERHAPS A FAMILY FAILING ⭐️⭐️
GOOD-BYE, GOOD-BYE ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
POOR GIRL ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
HARE PARK ⭐️⭐️⭐️
YOU'LL ENJOY IT WHEN YOU GET THERE ⭐️⭐️
December 5, 2025
I was so excited to read this, I thought 'The Blush' was going to be some edgy noir text because I genuinely thought the writer was the legendary actress Elizabeth Taylor. It's not, my bad 😂 There is absolutely nothing glamourous about this text, just about two women: one is a childless employer, while the other is an employee who cleans her house. Something life-altering happens to the latter woman and she leaves the house unexpectedly. In short, it's about choices, jealousy and the perils of motherhood/childlessness.
September 21, 2023
After enjoying her other collection of short stories, found this earlier selection in classic Virago edition. Even though these were amongst some of the first pieces she wrote, you'd never know. Her voice is there, as well as the ability to hook you in deep from the first couple of paragraphs.
August 24, 2021
From small exquisitely observed domestically Taylor creates stories of deep disquietude. Women trapped in a variety of role models subject to conformity and the expectations of men
June 23, 2021
A collection of excellent short stories by an author I have been meaning to read for years and years. I hope to get my hands on some of her longer works soon; these small pieces were very special and left me wanting something big to sink my teeth into.
Want to read
December 8, 2017Downstairs in Virago Bin
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews