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Yesterday's Houses
Yesterday's Houses by Mavis Cheek is a classic Cheek comedy of manners that will delight her many fans. From the bestselling author of Janice Gentle Gets Sexy and Mrs Fytton's Country Life comes a tragicomic tale of one woman's journey to independence via seven houses, three men and many disappointments...
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
7 people are currently reading
88 people want to read
About the author
Mavis Cheek
32 books50 followersBorn in Wimbledon, now part of London, Mavis left school at 16 to do office work with Editions Alecto, a Kensington publishing company. She later moved to the firm's gallery in Albemarle Street, where she met artists such as David Hockney, Allen Jones, Patrick Caulfield and Gillian Ayres. In 1969 she married a "childhood sweetheart", Chris Cheek, a physicist, whom she had met at a meeting of the Young Communist League in New Malden, but they separated three years later. Later she lived for eleven years with the artist Basil Beattie. She returned to education in 1976, doing a two-year arts course at Hillcroft College, a further education college for women.
Although Cheek had planned to take a degree course, she turned instead to fiction writing while her daughter, Bella Beattie, was a child. She moved from London to Aldbourne in the Wiltshire countryside in 2003, but as she explained to a newspaper, "Life in the city was a comparative breeze. Life in the country is tough, a little bit dangerous and not for wimps."
Cheek has been involved with the Marlborough LitFest, and also teaches creative writing. This has included voluntary work at Holloway and Erlstoke prisons. As she described in an article: "What I see [at Erlstoke] is reflected in my own experience. Bright, overlooked, unconfident men who are suddenly given the opportunity to learn grow wings, and dare to fail. It helps to be able to tell them that I, too, was once designated thick by a very silly [education] system. My prisoners have written some brilliant stuff, and perhaps it gives them back some self-esteem."
Although Cheek had planned to take a degree course, she turned instead to fiction writing while her daughter, Bella Beattie, was a child. She moved from London to Aldbourne in the Wiltshire countryside in 2003, but as she explained to a newspaper, "Life in the city was a comparative breeze. Life in the country is tough, a little bit dangerous and not for wimps."
Cheek has been involved with the Marlborough LitFest, and also teaches creative writing. This has included voluntary work at Holloway and Erlstoke prisons. As she described in an article: "What I see [at Erlstoke] is reflected in my own experience. Bright, overlooked, unconfident men who are suddenly given the opportunity to learn grow wings, and dare to fail. It helps to be able to tell them that I, too, was once designated thick by a very silly [education] system. My prisoners have written some brilliant stuff, and perhaps it gives them back some self-esteem."
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
November 27, 2020
This book tells the story of the life of Marianne, which unfortunately is entirely uninteresting. Marianne keeps marrying men she doesn’t really love,and buying houses she doesn’t really want, and which need a good deal of doing up. I think we are meant to sympathise with her troubles with men and houses,but I just found them irritating. She has a daughter and, we are told, ‘puts her life on hold’ to raise her. A very strange expression I have always thought. What are children, if not life? I simply didn’t care what happened to Marianne, or her houses, or her men. Then she becomes a writer, and has some success writing novels, which I hope are more interesting than this one is.
April 11, 2021
Another satisfying Cheek walk thro a life where she develops but the houses don’t
Liked the detailed feel of Mariannes journey exasperated by her weakness to acknowledge that she was the creative one. Fun!
Liked the detailed feel of Mariannes journey exasperated by her weakness to acknowledge that she was the creative one. Fun!
December 4, 2023
Absolutely loved this witty book. I need to read all her other books now. Laugh out loud moments. Brilliantly written.
November 28, 2021
At times really funny but the ending is quite tedious and I wondered about the point of it beyond showcasing multiple references to various classical books / their characters. My reaction to the main character’s choices shifted between sympathy and exasperation as she repeated the same mistakes on and on. Her relationship with her daughter felt underdeveloped as if the only true connection she made with the world was via her husbands / lover. Jean was a great character and so was Willa. I would love the latter to reappear at the end. Overall, good writing, amusing observations but something major not working in the story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 17, 2017
I was enjoying this book until about three-quarters of the way through when she started to ramble and lose the plot!! It's really a shame as although it was definitely chick-lit it was an interesting story and gave a different point of view from the usual happy ever after type of book.
April 10, 2023
The novel follows Marianne from her teens to her middle years, with each chapter starting with the estate agent’s details of the house she was living in. Her goal in life is simple but elusive: her dream is to have a lovely bathroom.
I loved the earlier part of the book , with the fashions and mores of the Sixties and, although quite disturbing at times, it’s often really funny.
As a working class girl who left school to get a job, Marianne is looked down on by her posh husband and his circle, who think she’s thick because she hasn’t read the ‘right’ books. Her answer is to assimilate and read those books and believe that makes her a better person, till she’s referring to everyone in the flats behind her house as ‘proles’.
The disappointing thing about Yesterday’s Houses is that there’s no resolution.
I loved the earlier part of the book , with the fashions and mores of the Sixties and, although quite disturbing at times, it’s often really funny.
As a working class girl who left school to get a job, Marianne is looked down on by her posh husband and his circle, who think she’s thick because she hasn’t read the ‘right’ books. Her answer is to assimilate and read those books and believe that makes her a better person, till she’s referring to everyone in the flats behind her house as ‘proles’.
The disappointing thing about Yesterday’s Houses is that there’s no resolution.
July 6, 2022
I did not really enjoy this book, I kept hoping it would get better but it didn’t. The main character, Marianne Flowers, was a naive, unworldly and a rather insipid woman. She made bad choices in men, and also in the houses she bought and lived in. She aspired to be a better person, and dreamed of a lovely home with a lovely bathroom, which she never seemed to get. She did go to college, got an education, became a mother and then a successful author.
October 3, 2022
2.5 stars. Mavis Cheek wrote one of my favourite books so I was excited to finally find another book by her but it was quite disappointing. Marianne was, for the vast majority of the book, a frustrating and unlikable character. This made it seem like the story just went on and on and on even though it was only 263 pages.
March 9, 2018
a quick ez read, not without entertainment and yes, spoiler alert, the ending gives uplift to a rather dreary plot of entrapment
October 11, 2021
Usual delightful Mavis Cheek
She has done it again. Quirky,clever, fascinating. I would recommend everyone to read all of her novels. A joyous read
She has done it again. Quirky,clever, fascinating. I would recommend everyone to read all of her novels. A joyous read
September 2, 2023
I loved this,a story told in retrospect,based on the memories related to different resedential addresses of the protagonist.
October 25, 2023
Holiday read. Some typos and editing errors but a nice, light story
April 26, 2025
Enjoyable read, you go through life with Marianne from a very naive 17 year old to a mature woman in her 50s.
April 10, 2012
A woman’s place is in the home – or not as the case may be.
This book by Cheek challenges overriding notions of what it is to be female and to be connected to homes, families and the world.
I must admit I was surprised to read that other reviewers on here would (and do!) describe this book as chick-lit. I personally hate the aforesaid genre (so much so that I won’t speak its name again for a while) and find this book anything but. Feminist fiction – yes definitely – but the other, well no.
Cheek’s writing style is very jaunty and satirical but she does seem to understand the darker menaces of womanhood and femininity issues very clearly within the timeframe of a British sixties to eighties emancipation. Each London property that features in the narrative has its own distinct personality and character and influences directly the mental state, physical relationships and wellbeing of the protagonist Marianne. Drawing to the end of the book, she breaks some of the shackles of the housing/relationship conundrum and lives her life in more relative liberty as a freer and happier woman.
In essence, this book is all about feminism and the interspersed links to feminists and feminist authors carry on a theme of liberty, release and ground-breaking as the novel progresses.
Cheek has her own particular take on male characterisation during the novel but ultimately the men portrayed live much freer lives and are less ‘chained’ to circumstances and physical surroundings throughout the work (although they often 'bodge' them up).
As my first introductory read of Cheek, I have been very pleased. I love her methodology of tackling quite dark and challenging subject matter via tongue in ‘Cheek’ prose (sorry couldn’t resist that one). That said, this is still a book that I would happily pass on to male readers so they will be able to enjoy too the comic and clever humour.
Great book and I look forward to reading the author again. Recommended!
This book by Cheek challenges overriding notions of what it is to be female and to be connected to homes, families and the world.
I must admit I was surprised to read that other reviewers on here would (and do!) describe this book as chick-lit. I personally hate the aforesaid genre (so much so that I won’t speak its name again for a while) and find this book anything but. Feminist fiction – yes definitely – but the other, well no.
Cheek’s writing style is very jaunty and satirical but she does seem to understand the darker menaces of womanhood and femininity issues very clearly within the timeframe of a British sixties to eighties emancipation. Each London property that features in the narrative has its own distinct personality and character and influences directly the mental state, physical relationships and wellbeing of the protagonist Marianne. Drawing to the end of the book, she breaks some of the shackles of the housing/relationship conundrum and lives her life in more relative liberty as a freer and happier woman.
In essence, this book is all about feminism and the interspersed links to feminists and feminist authors carry on a theme of liberty, release and ground-breaking as the novel progresses.
Cheek has her own particular take on male characterisation during the novel but ultimately the men portrayed live much freer lives and are less ‘chained’ to circumstances and physical surroundings throughout the work (although they often 'bodge' them up).
As my first introductory read of Cheek, I have been very pleased. I love her methodology of tackling quite dark and challenging subject matter via tongue in ‘Cheek’ prose (sorry couldn’t resist that one). That said, this is still a book that I would happily pass on to male readers so they will be able to enjoy too the comic and clever humour.
Great book and I look forward to reading the author again. Recommended!
June 30, 2012
Excellent book, unputdownable. I brought this on a whim in a quaint little coffee shop one day and all the way home was hooked to the pages. Each one was creatively and sensuously written yet informative as it travels through a young woman's learnings of the people and places around her. Most enjoyable.
October 20, 2014
I enjoyed this book. Although I found Marianne a bit irritating I felt i could relate to her as she was of my era. It may be hard for younger readers to understand how much women's lives did depend on the men in their lives during the 60's and 70's.
June 23, 2009
Poignant evocation of what houses mean to one's sense of identity
Read
July 28, 2011What a wimp didnt gel with Marianne at all, reckon it was supposed to be funny too but missed it. I did hope she ended up in a nice house but we will never know
August 19, 2011
love the style of writing easy book to read. Seemed realistic and comical in places
May 30, 2012
notes say 'good easy read'
February 4, 2015
Didn't love it, didn't hate it.
September 13, 2016
I didn't really love it and didn't hate it. I did find Marianne a bit annoying though.
October 24, 2018
Quite liked it but there were a lot of words saying the same thing numerous times!! Also another book without a real ending.
September 27, 2011
Another brilliant Mavis Cheek read.
February 4, 2016
Great book
May 16, 2018
Read over 3 days in Portugal- borrowed from Tina - loved it - will read more of her books
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews