Another Time, Another Place

by Jessie Kesson

Another Time, Another Place movingly portrays the tragic consequences of a clash of cultures in a haunting tale of love and war. A young farm-worker's wife has forbidden feelings for an Italian prisoner-of-war billeted in her village.

Genres: Scotland, Fiction, Historical Fiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1983

About the author

Jessie Kesson, born Jessie Grant McDonald, was a Scottish novelist, playwright and radio producer.

Her first published story was in The People's Friend in the 1930s. She moved to London in 1949 and, while working in a variety of other jobs, began writing radio plays for the BBC. Much of her work has been autobiographical, capturing the speech and landscape of the north-east of Scotland, and evoking the inter-war years. Her novels include The White Bird Passes (1958), which tells of her destitute early years; Glitter of Mica (1963), set in the farming communities of Aberdeenshire; and Another Time, Another Place (1983), describing the effect on those communities of the arrival of Italian prisoners of war in the 1940s. A collection of short stories, Where the Apple Ripens, was published in 1985, and her work has been adapted for television and the cinema.

(http://www.jrank.org/literature/pages...)

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brief novella, set in rural Scotland late in the Second World War. Born in 1916 Jessie Kesson was Scottish and born in Inverness in the workhouse. She never knew her father and was brought up in by her beloved mother. Her early childhood was spent avoiding the rent man and the Cruelty Inspector (who had the power to remove children to the orphanage if they were being neglected).
There is an autobiographical element to this as Kesson lived and worked on a farm in her early adulthood. The setting is a farm and the main protagonist is a young woman married to a farm worker. She lives in a row of three cottages on the farm and there are other cottages scattered nearby. It is quite an enclosed community. Into this community come three Italian prisoners of war who are billeted on the farm. The story illustrates the role of women in a rural community and the stresses and pressures. The young woman narrator married to an older (though good) man, has ambitions and desires which she is unable to fulfil; she is in prison, though the jailor is kind. However the arrival of the Italians changes things;
“The young woman felt a small surge of anticipation rising up within her at the prospect of the widening of her narrow insular world as a farm worker’s wife, almost untouched by the world war that raged around her. She always felt she was missing out on some tremendous event, never more so than when she caught a glimpse of girls of her own age, resplendent in uniform, setting out for places she would never set eyes on. Or when she caught their laughter-filled whispers of a whirling social life, the like of which she had never known”
The isolation of the small community is illustrated when the three women from the farm go to a local fair in the nearby village;
“It hadn’t been imagination. The young woman realised that the moment she stepped inside the marquee. For, although the village lay little more than a mile away from them, the cottar wives had no real part in its integral life. They could have ‘dropped in’ from another planet, to find themselves invisible, in a marquee. Huddling closely together, they began to wander round the different ‘sections’, their voices rising loud in praise of each and every exhibit on show. As if the sound of themselves could merge within that of the folk who surrounded them.”
The writing is quite sparse and episodic with some sharp descriptions of the daily round of life on the farm. The narrator earns a little extra money by doing odd jobs for the Italians. The young woman develops feelings for the men which worry her as she realises she is as much of a prisoner as they are; probably more so. An inevitable affair ensues. However there is a twist at the end and the ending is complex and open. It’s a good novella, which for me would have benefitted by being longer with more time for character development. Kesson makes some powerful points about the role of women in rural communities and the restrictions on them.

[Fiona · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful short novel set in the North East of Scotland during WWII. The central character is referred to throughout as ‘the young woman’. Her husband also remains nameless even though all the other cottars, farm workers, and the Italian prisoners of war who are billeted in the pigman’s bothy, are named. An underlying air of menace builds as Luigi, one of the prisoners, pursues the young woman. The presence of the Italians is disturbing to everyone. This is a farming area where horizons are limited and strangers are rare. The Italians open up a life of imagined possibilities for the young woman but she knows in her heart that her life is what it is and won’t change.

One of the most affecting aspects of the young woman is her intelligence. She recalls details from mythology, can recite poetry, and remembers and sings many songs. She is a woman with a potential that will probably never be tapped.

This is a beautifully written novella that captures a gruelling way of life now long gone but still within living memory.

[Cristina Izquierdo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tbh I haven't seen the point of this book until the very last page, maybe it's been bc of my reading but it's just been a bit boring? I feel like the message is interesting but the execution lacks many things... this would have worked much better as a short story. It is a shame that I don't have enough vocabulary of the crofter life and I'm too lazy (because there is toooo much in this book) to look up for every word I dont get, because there were lots of descriptions of farm life which I imagine were nice but I just didn't get at all. normal read

[Agnès · Rating 3 out of 5]

i didnt understand half of it (mostly because one day i fell asleep while reading) but didnt hate it idk i really dont have an opinion about it

3/5 stars because i didnt hate it, i just... dont care about it

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jessie Kesson was borne in the Inverness workhouse in 1916, denied education due to her station in life, she married a cottar in North-east of Scotland. This book is set in 1944 when three Italian POW come to a cottar community and the young wife of the cottar feels her whole world changing. I really adored this. What a wonderful little thing.

[Martin Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another Time, Another Place surprised me with how beautiful the prose was. Kesson's style reminds me a wee of Jane Austen, with her free indirect speech and gently humorous observations. Though Kesson's fowk are a different breed—sheuching neeps, not scoffing cakes—and the writing matches them with its casual intimacy. There's also more songs in it than Lord of the Rings, which is an impressive feat.

The story's told in a continuous run of tiny vignettes. Each one felt like it added something, but I sometimes wanted the story to linger a while on certain moments and it never did. The shortness also bamboozled me occasionally and I had to reread some parts to find my footing again.

Abody should read at least one book written by a body from their hometown. Now, the story doesn't seem much on paper: Italian POWs come to a village and a farmer's wife gets FOMO. But it turns out to be a prose poem about desire during hard times. It's very poignant in how the subject matter is treated.

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the summer of 1944 three Italian prisoners-of-war are billeted in a remote farming village in the north-east of Scotland. For the young, unnamed, cottar’s wife who lives in the adjoining cottage, and who is tasked with looking after them, their arrival opens up a glimpse into a different world, a world far removed from the harsh realities of crofting life and the constraints of living in a tight-knit and traditional community. More a series of vignettes than a sustained narrative, it’s a poignant and haunting portrait of rural life, where the inhabitants are perhaps even less free than the prisoners themselves. The young woman is portrayed with compassion and empathy, and the descriptions of the countryside are vivid and evocative. A charming and melancholy story, with a memorable heroine trapped in a limited world.

[Moira McPartlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the reviews on here are not very complementary, but I loved this novella. The writing style is slow, tense and sensual. The coothy nature and relationships of the crofters feel real. I particularly love the beautiful descriptions of the mundane and the cycle of the farming year.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

North East Scotland 1944. Tough, remote, isolated. Life revolves round little beyond keeping body and soul together: planting and harvesting potatoes and other crops: livestock. Bits of extra money are spent on essentials like worn-out work shirts, not on frivolities like new curtains. Three Italian POWs are billeted on the community. They're regarded with suspicion, but also with interest ....

Each carefully chosen word in this novella evokes the tough lives lived in this community, in which little out of the ordinary happens, and quiet suspicion can flourish. It's atmospheric too. But in the end, this slight story didn't truly engage me.

[Dr. des. Siobhán · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent short book by the Scottish modernist Jessie Kesson, a friend and contemporary of Nan Shepherd.

Our unnamed narrator, called only "the young woman" throughout the book. She is newly (and unhappily) wed to a farmer and lives in a very rural Scottish community she does not really fit into. When three Italian prisoners of war arrive, the young woman's entire existence is called into doubt as she is removed from her harsh life and thus able to awake not only on a sexual level.

The writing is very beautiful & I loved how these three Prisoners of War make the young woman's world so much larger just by existing.

5 Stars

[Fee · Rating 4 out of 5]

My second Jessie Kesson, almost as beautiful as the first. Once again set in a farming community in the northeast of Scotland, Another Time, Another Place examines how that community is forced to change to accommodate three Italian prisoners of war who have been billeted in farm cottages there. The story is told through the eyes of an unnamed female narrator who struggles with the confines of her small community and its rules and boundaries, and imagines casting off the expectations placed on her. As in Glitter of Mica, Kesson's writing is dreamy, almost stream-of-consciousness, fragmented into vignettes that gradually reveal a plot. This is slow, sublime reading.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short book which can he read at one sitting and as you fall into the beautiful prose you are also absorbed by this story of a young woman in a North Eastern Scottish farm during ww2. What is a tough life as the wife of a taciturn man who shows her little affection is changed when 3 Italian prisoners of war are placed on the remote farm.
What follows is the woman's friendship with the men. It is a gentle story, but the eventual relationship she establishes will have a profound impact on her life.
I found this story having read a number of books by Janice Galloway, who recommended this as a little known classic, and I was glad to discover the book and writer.

[Ailsa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a lovely and vivid novella - I really enjoyed some of the descriptions given, the inclusion of various work songs, and how intimate a portrait it was of the narrator's life as a farm worker. It was also, I found, a bit depressing in how trapped and desperate the narrator felt, so I can't say I enjoyed it overall, though it was a beautiful book. The characters all felt alive, although I didn't find many of them sympathetic, and I did really love the snapshot it gave us into another time, another place.

[Julie Loy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautifully written but much more about the rural landscape and everyday lives and concerns of the people who work on the land than a love story. I would also like to read The White Bird Passes which tells the story of Janie''s childhood growing up on the streets in the city before she marries her much older husband, a cattle man, and moves to the countryside.
Both books were inspired by the author Jessie Kesson''s life.

[Lynda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novella plays with ideas of freedom and containment when some Italian prisoners of war are interned on a remote farm in the North of Scotland. This injection of a different culture with a romantic tradition has a significant impact into the restrained culture of the cottars lifestyle. Beautiful description of seasons and landscape

[Dr. des. Siobhán · Rating 4 out of 5]

A young unhappy farmer's wife is tasked to take care of three (hot) Italian prisoners of war. The Italiens disrupt the wee community but also challenge the young farmer's wife. Female sexuality, forbidden desire, WW2 and Scotland. A short book, a quick read but I found the story to be quite predictable. Could have been longer if it makes sense?

[Megan Willis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in a small Scottish cottar community during WW2, this slim novel follows the disruption brought by the arrival of three Italian prisoners of war. Narrated by an unnamed young woman, the politics surrounding the Italian men's imprisonment leads her to contemplate her own limited freedom as a wife and rural worker; she dreams of a different, more exciting life which will never come. The insight into rural life that the book provides is interesting and authentic, but ultimately the plot and characters don’t feel fully fleshed out, which leads to a mediocre reading experience.

[Ariadna Cota · Rating 4 out of 5]

For an imposed reading, I kind of liked it. I liked the main character and how she saw the world in a naïve way with hopes for her future that she would actually never try to achieve.

[Bob · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed. I had read and enjoyed The White Bird Passes and was expecting better. Although a short book much of this one dragged. The style is suggestive rather than descriptive. It improved towards the end as the action accelerated.
The drabness of existence on the edge of rural poverty is well drawn but I found it hard to grasp the character of the young wife - who is never named.

[Ann-Cathrine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried to like this book. I really did. Perhaps I’m not intellectual enough.

The insight into rural life is my only gain from this book. And it’s actually not much of the book.

The back blurb promised me a great classic and I got a story that I could barely follow, that annoyed me and that I don’t know what to do with.

The language wasn’t too special, and the ending just wrecked me. I get that it’s supposed to be showstopping that we don’t know the main characters name as she is only reffest to as “the young woman” but I just found it to be annoying. Rape is never ok, and I don’t know what the other thought she did when she wrote the ending.

One day I’ll perhaps look back at this and think how stupid I was to not care for this book, but today I just don’t like it. Perhaps that makes me stupid, but I don’t care.

[Sara-Jane Lesca · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn't a fan of this book to be honest. I didn't like the style that it was written in. It seemed to jump from paragraph to paragraph without explaining that it had, which often left me completely confused. It had lots of little songs in as well which I didn't like. It was interesting because it was set on a farm in Scotland during World War II and they had Italian prisoners of war come to stay with them, so it gave you a sense of what it was like to live in those conditions during the war. However as it was based on Scotland there was a lot of Scottish slang, which unless you enjoy reading this, it wasn't my cup of tea. The one thing I did like however was that it taught me that unfortunately society has not changed its attitude around immigrants in over 70 years. In this story the characters first impressions when they heard that they were going to be getting prisoners of war, was resent and hatred that these 'foreigners' were coming to steal their jobs. Like it was then and it is now, prisoners of war, immigrants or refugees are not coming here to steal anything from us. They are coming here either because they have been forced to or it's their only choice to save their lives from war and poverty. I do recommend this if you enjoy reading stories set around the time of the World Wars and have an interest in Scottish culture.

[Fran Macilvey · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Another Time, Another Place” by Jessie Kesson

JK is a writer whom I have admired for many years. As a student I avidly read her autobiographical, “Where the White Bird Passes”, buying several copies through the years, one of which I had signed by the author. She was a shy, self-effacing woman, barely exchanging a word with me in the quiet bookstore. I do love her books.

I feel as if each word in this slim volume is carefully chosen. Each preposition and pronoun carefully placed to avoid repeats and to enliven each line of prose. The imagery is startling, beautifully observed and colourful, atmospheric and entirely true to its location. Such clear honesty, so faithfully set to the page must be rare, in these hurried times.

Highly recommended.

Fran Macilvey, author, “Trapped: My Life With Cerebral Palsy”

[Bettie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Classic Serial - coming to a wireless near you on Sunday. A haunting tale of love and war set in a remote Scottish village.

Jig-a-Jig!

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[Carey · Rating 2 out of 5]

So predictable, so stereotyped so boring.

[J.U. Flint · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was a bit disappointed with this book - had wanted to read it for years. Didn't like any of the characters, and the story itself was fairly slight.

[Silvia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting plot

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

A haunting tale of love and war set in a remote Scottish village. In fact, quite boring....