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Hostages to Fortune
This autobiographical first novel follows the life of a young woman from 1915 when she has her first baby until early 1933 when it was published. Catherine's husband, invalided out of the army in 1917, buys a doctor's practice in an Oxfordshire village and here the young couple bring up their three children and are deeply involved in the life of the village. It is a surprisingly hard life, full of difficulties and disillusions, but a satisfying one nevertheless.
'Hostages to Fortune' is a brave and unusual novel in its description of both the realities of parenthood and its attendant disappointments - there is no plot as such, and yet the reader becomes absorbed in a life which is in one sense faraway and in another, because this is a domestic novel par excellence, not very different from many such lives today.
'Hostages to Fortune' is a brave and unusual novel in its description of both the realities of parenthood and its attendant disappointments - there is no plot as such, and yet the reader becomes absorbed in a life which is in one sense faraway and in another, because this is a domestic novel par excellence, not very different from many such lives today.
344 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1933
5 people are currently reading
227 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth Cambridge
8 books1 followerBarbara K Hodges (née Webber) (1893–1949) was an English novelist who wrote under the pseudonym Elizabeth Cambridge. The daughter of Dr H. W. Webber, she was born in Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire. She spent her childhood in Plymouth and Westgate-on-Sea, and then attended Les Marrioniers finishing school in Paris. Barbara published her first set of short stories at the age of 17.
In 1914 she worked as a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse before marrying Dr. G. M. Hodges. The couple lived in Deddington and had two sons and a daughter. In 1930 she began writing again and Hostages to Fortune was published in 1933 (reprinted in 2003 by Persephone Books). She wrote five more novels between 1934 and 1940.
From Wikipedia
In 1914 she worked as a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse before marrying Dr. G. M. Hodges. The couple lived in Deddington and had two sons and a daughter. In 1930 she began writing again and Hostages to Fortune was published in 1933 (reprinted in 2003 by Persephone Books). She wrote five more novels between 1934 and 1940.
From Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
July 18, 2018
There are many different kinds of novel out there in the world, and of course that it how it should be; because people read for different reasons, because we all live different lives and so well all look for different things when we read.
That means that it is very easy for quiet books to get lost in the crowd, and it means that it is a great joy to those of us who love such books when somebody – be it a big publisher, a small press, or an individual whose voice is heard – draws attention to a quiet book worthy of being raised above that crowd.
‘Hostages to Fortune’ is one of those books, wisely rescued by the lovely Persephone Books, and it does some of the things I love most in a quiet book.
It speaks to my sense of wonder that there are so many people in the world and that each and every one of them has a story of their own that might be told.
It illuminates lives lived at a particular time, at a particular point in history so very well that I really do feel that these fictional characters lived and breathed, and that I have come understand how their lives were for them without ever intruding at all.
And it does all of this, and more, quite beautifully.
If it was a painting, I would say that it was a picture that at first seemed unremarkable, and yet it drew you right in, and you found something new to appreciate every time you looked at it.
The story begins in 1915, with a young woman named Catherine, who is fairly newly married and whose husband William is away at the war. She is expecting a child, she gives birth to a girl, and she names her Audrey.
“She opened her eyes. Nurse was standing over her, the baby held upright against her shoulder, like the bambino on a Della Robbia Plaque.
Catherine stared. So that was her baby. Baby? Babies were sleepy amorphous, unconvincing and ugly. This creature was not amorphous, it was not even ugly. It stared at life with bright unwinking eyes. Its underlip was thrust out tremulous indignant.
‘My word’ Catherine thought ‘that’s not a baby. It’s a person.’ "
William came home two years later, invalided out of the army, and Catherine quickly realised that the war had changed him irrevocably. He decided to buy a medical practice in an Oxfordshire village, and to move his family from their cottage in Cornwall to the house that came with that practice. Catherine was daunted by the size of the house, and the role that she was called on to play, but she was quickly caught up in her new life.
There is no plot as such, but the book follows the lives of Catherine and her family until the early 1930s, in it is utterly absorbing. There was so much that said to me that I was reading about real lives that had been lived, and although I was reading about lives lived a very long time ago there was so much about the feeling and concerns of the people I was reading about that was both timeless and universal.
When the story begins her husband and her hopes of being a writer dominate Catherine’s life, but when she becomes a mother – of three children, as Audrey is followed first by Adam and then by Bill – they take up all of her time and thoughts. She finds that they bring her happiness, puzzlement and worry, and I understood it all wonderfully well. Each child was beautifully and distinctively drawn, and I think that this might be the finest account of children and their family life that I have ever read.
I appreciated the way that the lives of Catherine’s family were contrasted with the very different lives of her elder sister Violet’s family, casting a different light upon the characters and their age; and I loved the way that the story subtly shifted to show the different natures and concerns of all of those children.
I was equally impressed – maybe even more impressed – by the portrayal of Catherine and William’s marriage.
His role as the local doctor could be difficult and demanding, as was her role, running the family home and caring for three young children. Their relationship was often strained, and there were times when they didn’t particularly like one another, and when they questioned to themselves why ever they had chosen to marry, but they never quite lost the sense that they were partners, and they shared the same loves and the same values. In time they each came to appreciate what the other had done for them, for their children, and for their future, and that strengthened their marriage.
“They had come to admire each other. They had both hated their jobs, but they had stuck to them until miraculously, they had come not only to like them, but to be unable to do without them. By the same process they had come to really need and like each other; somehow a real friendship a real need for each other had grown up behind their differences and disappointments.”
There are many details of relationships of characters and of moments in lives lived in this book. They have blurred a little, I know that they will come back to me when I pick the book up again, but now I am happy considering the impression that they have left behind them.
A picture of a family that is finely drawn and utterly real.
That means that it is very easy for quiet books to get lost in the crowd, and it means that it is a great joy to those of us who love such books when somebody – be it a big publisher, a small press, or an individual whose voice is heard – draws attention to a quiet book worthy of being raised above that crowd.
‘Hostages to Fortune’ is one of those books, wisely rescued by the lovely Persephone Books, and it does some of the things I love most in a quiet book.
It speaks to my sense of wonder that there are so many people in the world and that each and every one of them has a story of their own that might be told.
It illuminates lives lived at a particular time, at a particular point in history so very well that I really do feel that these fictional characters lived and breathed, and that I have come understand how their lives were for them without ever intruding at all.
And it does all of this, and more, quite beautifully.
If it was a painting, I would say that it was a picture that at first seemed unremarkable, and yet it drew you right in, and you found something new to appreciate every time you looked at it.
The story begins in 1915, with a young woman named Catherine, who is fairly newly married and whose husband William is away at the war. She is expecting a child, she gives birth to a girl, and she names her Audrey.
“She opened her eyes. Nurse was standing over her, the baby held upright against her shoulder, like the bambino on a Della Robbia Plaque.
Catherine stared. So that was her baby. Baby? Babies were sleepy amorphous, unconvincing and ugly. This creature was not amorphous, it was not even ugly. It stared at life with bright unwinking eyes. Its underlip was thrust out tremulous indignant.
‘My word’ Catherine thought ‘that’s not a baby. It’s a person.’ "
William came home two years later, invalided out of the army, and Catherine quickly realised that the war had changed him irrevocably. He decided to buy a medical practice in an Oxfordshire village, and to move his family from their cottage in Cornwall to the house that came with that practice. Catherine was daunted by the size of the house, and the role that she was called on to play, but she was quickly caught up in her new life.
There is no plot as such, but the book follows the lives of Catherine and her family until the early 1930s, in it is utterly absorbing. There was so much that said to me that I was reading about real lives that had been lived, and although I was reading about lives lived a very long time ago there was so much about the feeling and concerns of the people I was reading about that was both timeless and universal.
When the story begins her husband and her hopes of being a writer dominate Catherine’s life, but when she becomes a mother – of three children, as Audrey is followed first by Adam and then by Bill – they take up all of her time and thoughts. She finds that they bring her happiness, puzzlement and worry, and I understood it all wonderfully well. Each child was beautifully and distinctively drawn, and I think that this might be the finest account of children and their family life that I have ever read.
I appreciated the way that the lives of Catherine’s family were contrasted with the very different lives of her elder sister Violet’s family, casting a different light upon the characters and their age; and I loved the way that the story subtly shifted to show the different natures and concerns of all of those children.
I was equally impressed – maybe even more impressed – by the portrayal of Catherine and William’s marriage.
His role as the local doctor could be difficult and demanding, as was her role, running the family home and caring for three young children. Their relationship was often strained, and there were times when they didn’t particularly like one another, and when they questioned to themselves why ever they had chosen to marry, but they never quite lost the sense that they were partners, and they shared the same loves and the same values. In time they each came to appreciate what the other had done for them, for their children, and for their future, and that strengthened their marriage.
“They had come to admire each other. They had both hated their jobs, but they had stuck to them until miraculously, they had come not only to like them, but to be unable to do without them. By the same process they had come to really need and like each other; somehow a real friendship a real need for each other had grown up behind their differences and disappointments.”
There are many details of relationships of characters and of moments in lives lived in this book. They have blurred a little, I know that they will come back to me when I pick the book up again, but now I am happy considering the impression that they have left behind them.
A picture of a family that is finely drawn and utterly real.
April 5, 2013
Hostages to Fortune; first published in 1933 is a quiet novel about a family in the years between 1915 and 1933. The novel is very autobiographical, the author, like her central character Catherine, was the wife of an Oxfordshire doctor. Catherine (unlike Elizabeth Cambridge) finds she must give up her ambitions to be a writer, in the daily struggle to manage her home and three children. However the domestic struggles we see Catherine endure, her doubts and parental insecurities –must have Cambridge’s own.
‘Hostages to Fortune’ opens as Catherine has just given birth to her first child Audrey. She is still fairly newly married and her husband William is away at the war.
“She opened her eyes. Nurse was standing over her, the baby held upright against her shoulder, like the bambino on a Della Robbia Plaque.
Catherine stared. So that was her baby. Baby? Babies were sleepy amorphous, unconvincing and ugly. This creature was not amorphous, it was not even ugly. It stared at life with bright unwinking eyes. Its underlip was thrust out tremulous indignant.
‘My word’ Catherine thought ‘that’s not a baby. It’s a person.’
When William returns to Catherine and Audrey in their small cottage in Cornwall he is a changed man. William buys a doctor’s practice in Oxfordshire which comes with a large house, a house that proves difficult to run when they can’t afford much help.
There is not much plot as such in this novel, but there is much to commend it. Beautifully written it lifts the lid on a real family, because Catherine, William, Audrey, Adam and Bill feel very much like people who have stepped fully formed from these pages. They are people who must surely have lived. Contrasted somewhat with the lives of Catherine and William are the lives of Violet and Edward, Catherine’s much older sister and her husband. When Catherine gives birth to Audrey in 1915 – Violet is already an experienced parent – her children some years older than Catherine’s. As the years pass – Violet has occasion to wonder at Catherine’s philosophy of parenting – although as her own children grow toward adulthood Violet has her own concerns.
There are many wonderfully memorable scenes in this novel; William bringing an old woman hurt in a motor accident home with him, a children’s party, Christmas shopping for toys and a holiday by the sea – all scenes from an ordinary life, made less ordinary by Cambridge’s writing.
“Audrey and Adam had bought two pink sugar mice with white worsted tails for Christmas presents and a sugar cage with a cardboard bird in it. Neither Catherine nor William had seen anything of the sort since they were children spending hand-warmed pennies at little sweet-stuff shops on a Saturday morning. They looked at each other and laughed.
“Hold yours up by its tail and see if its eyes drop out!”
“It’s not a guinea pig, it’s a mouse!’
Audrey stared at them. It had cost her agonies of self-control not to eat even a little bit of the mice, and now they were being treated as something to play with – they might at least have offered her a bit.”
I liked the relationship between William and Catherine, again it seemed marvellously realistic, and their affections are not over blown or flowery but true. William’s disappointment when he fails to buy his wife some pink silk stockings which he had set his heart on buying her, for instance is really touching. The people upon who Elizabeth Cambridge must have based her characters lived a long time ago – and yet their hopes and fears are our own. Early twentieth century Oxfordshire countryside and gardens are bloom again in Elizabeth Cambridge’s affectionate descriptions.
This Persephone edition accompanied me on a visit to the Persephone shop in London on Tuesday – and has got my April reading off to a lovely start.
‘Hostages to Fortune’ opens as Catherine has just given birth to her first child Audrey. She is still fairly newly married and her husband William is away at the war.
“She opened her eyes. Nurse was standing over her, the baby held upright against her shoulder, like the bambino on a Della Robbia Plaque.
Catherine stared. So that was her baby. Baby? Babies were sleepy amorphous, unconvincing and ugly. This creature was not amorphous, it was not even ugly. It stared at life with bright unwinking eyes. Its underlip was thrust out tremulous indignant.
‘My word’ Catherine thought ‘that’s not a baby. It’s a person.’
When William returns to Catherine and Audrey in their small cottage in Cornwall he is a changed man. William buys a doctor’s practice in Oxfordshire which comes with a large house, a house that proves difficult to run when they can’t afford much help.
There is not much plot as such in this novel, but there is much to commend it. Beautifully written it lifts the lid on a real family, because Catherine, William, Audrey, Adam and Bill feel very much like people who have stepped fully formed from these pages. They are people who must surely have lived. Contrasted somewhat with the lives of Catherine and William are the lives of Violet and Edward, Catherine’s much older sister and her husband. When Catherine gives birth to Audrey in 1915 – Violet is already an experienced parent – her children some years older than Catherine’s. As the years pass – Violet has occasion to wonder at Catherine’s philosophy of parenting – although as her own children grow toward adulthood Violet has her own concerns.
There are many wonderfully memorable scenes in this novel; William bringing an old woman hurt in a motor accident home with him, a children’s party, Christmas shopping for toys and a holiday by the sea – all scenes from an ordinary life, made less ordinary by Cambridge’s writing.
“Audrey and Adam had bought two pink sugar mice with white worsted tails for Christmas presents and a sugar cage with a cardboard bird in it. Neither Catherine nor William had seen anything of the sort since they were children spending hand-warmed pennies at little sweet-stuff shops on a Saturday morning. They looked at each other and laughed.
“Hold yours up by its tail and see if its eyes drop out!”
“It’s not a guinea pig, it’s a mouse!’
Audrey stared at them. It had cost her agonies of self-control not to eat even a little bit of the mice, and now they were being treated as something to play with – they might at least have offered her a bit.”
I liked the relationship between William and Catherine, again it seemed marvellously realistic, and their affections are not over blown or flowery but true. William’s disappointment when he fails to buy his wife some pink silk stockings which he had set his heart on buying her, for instance is really touching. The people upon who Elizabeth Cambridge must have based her characters lived a long time ago – and yet their hopes and fears are our own. Early twentieth century Oxfordshire countryside and gardens are bloom again in Elizabeth Cambridge’s affectionate descriptions.
This Persephone edition accompanied me on a visit to the Persephone shop in London on Tuesday – and has got my April reading off to a lovely start.
January 25, 2014
Hmmm... I really liked this rather gentle and unassuming book. It is about married/family life in England after WW1. I found the reflections of the main character, Catherine, really interesting. It is perhaps a book of the interior rather than the exterior. Having said that, there are also many descriptions of the countryside and the characters affinity with it. Anything I say about it makes it sound more trite than it is - I want to say that it's about parenting, it's about recovery after tragedy, it's about finding or remarking on the next generation, it's about change or stability or the passing of time. See - I'm hopeless at describing what it's about. But I liked it. Thank you Secret Santa for giving it to me.
November 17, 2019
"It's a dreadful world for the children to come out into." Robin's mother chafed her forearm through the thin silk of her dress, a dress so long familiar to the other two that they had given up even noticing that she was wearing it yet again. ...
"I've given up believing that a good time's coming. I know a bad time's come. I wish they'd stop talking and do something about it. After all, none of us want very much. Security. A living wage. Hope for our children." ...
She became aware that the silent Robin was struggling with an opinion. Politely, with great kindness, he delivered himself of his verdict.
"You see, you all expected such a lot."
That was written nearly 90 years ago, published 1933. What was coming for those teenaged children, unknown to the author, was World War II. And what is coming for teens now? Who knows. Maybe something much worse.
We expect something cosy from books written between the wars, but this is decidedly uncosy. Catherine is a doctor's wife whose life is one long struggle to keep the family going. Yes they have a servant and yes the children go to boarding school. They are not starving. But as the young Robin says, their generation - the survivors of World War I - expected a lot more of life. Perhaps every generation does.
"I've given up believing that a good time's coming. I know a bad time's come. I wish they'd stop talking and do something about it. After all, none of us want very much. Security. A living wage. Hope for our children." ...
She became aware that the silent Robin was struggling with an opinion. Politely, with great kindness, he delivered himself of his verdict.
"You see, you all expected such a lot."
That was written nearly 90 years ago, published 1933. What was coming for those teenaged children, unknown to the author, was World War II. And what is coming for teens now? Who knows. Maybe something much worse.
We expect something cosy from books written between the wars, but this is decidedly uncosy. Catherine is a doctor's wife whose life is one long struggle to keep the family going. Yes they have a servant and yes the children go to boarding school. They are not starving. But as the young Robin says, their generation - the survivors of World War I - expected a lot more of life. Perhaps every generation does.
February 19, 2013
Catherine and her doctor husband, William, struggle to make ends meet and raise their three children in a small Oxfordshire town after WWI. This Persephone novel tells a quiet but moving story made up of every day events and happenings which reveal the social changes and shifts of the time.
May 19, 2017
Very good book. Must elaborate.
February 5, 2024
I'm not sure why, but I really loved this book. Interesting writing style, with different voices interchanging throughout, and seamlessly done too.
The characters were realistic, flawed but endearing. How many parents see youth slipping away, with the day to day work of keeping house and raising children?
There was something somewhat haunting about the ending, with the protagonist hoping for a happy life for her children, and the Second World War just around the corner.
I would really recommend, just wished the author had more work in print.
The characters were realistic, flawed but endearing. How many parents see youth slipping away, with the day to day work of keeping house and raising children?
There was something somewhat haunting about the ending, with the protagonist hoping for a happy life for her children, and the Second World War just around the corner.
I would really recommend, just wished the author had more work in print.
December 17, 2020
I absolutely love Persephone Books and usually treat myself to 2-3 for Mother's Day and Christmas. I randomly purchased Hostages to Fortune and it couldn't have been more timely as my husband and I are going through many of the transitions that William and Catherine did with their family. Elizabeth Cambridge is a beautiful writer, and I really enjoyed this book. There is so much beauty in staying with things, in growing older, and in accepting our lives.
August 5, 2021
A very interesting novel, an autobiographical study of domestic life in rural England between the First World War and the 1930s. The subject matter is not unlike that of a Dorothy Whipple novel but it is very different in tone and approach; it is a bit like Whipple without the rough edges knocked off (not that Whipple's characters don't get into some rough places but her writing style is smoother). In places it is quite depressing but it is also quite compelling; a good read.
September 13, 2025
Written in 1933 this novel beautifully describes the life of a middle class family. From the post first world war relief, through depression, food shortages, sheer hard work and drudgery the author narrates the life of a country family. She particularly expresses the emotions felt by the wife/mother who must work endlessly to hold together home, children and husband.
A thought provoking novel, giving insight into social circumstances of a previous generation.
A thought provoking novel, giving insight into social circumstances of a previous generation.
November 27, 2017
This book took me a few weeks to read because at first I didn't "get it". As another reviewer put "nothing happens" indeed nothing happens, but the lesson wasn't so much in any big events, but in life itself. This book could be a guide explaining how to be content, how to let go of your ambitions and be content, and why not? We are invited to watch a family life and their interactions with each other, we watch their relationships change as the years roll by and discover what it means to be happy. I found it philosophical and touching.
November 2, 2018
First published in 1933 the book is mostly set in rural Oxfordshire in the 1920s-1930s. Not a lot happens, but the story of a growing family is told with honesty and beauty.
January 25, 2020
A book about a five person middle class family through the early 20th century. Good for funny moments and quips. a study of family life.
May 7, 2023
A thoughtful and charming story about the ups and downs of marriage and family life - I really enjoyed it
July 13, 2023
3.5 stars rounded down
February 16, 2023
Reread 2023. A wonderful, rich, compelling novel about a hard-up middle-class doctor’s family in the countryside after the First World War. It’s a character-driven novel, mainly about the ambitions and life-choices we have, and the different characters and relationships of the mother, father and three children, as well as Catherine’s (the mother) older sister and her family. It’s a fresh and ageless novel, so it wasn’t until the very last chapter that I realised that it is actually a portrait of the generation between the World Wars, a generation that we today tend to romanticize but that in reality struggled quite a lot with making ends meet and adjusting themselves to the changes of the society.
A lovely read but one that makes you take your time to savor it.
A lovely read but one that makes you take your time to savor it.
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April 5, 2024I learned of this book via this post:https://bookertalk.com/sample-sunday-...
And was reminded of it by her review: https://bookertalk.com/hostages-to-fo...
And was reminded of it by her review: https://bookertalk.com/hostages-to-fo...
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September 13, 2007Online at http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.390150...
June 8, 2011
I kept waiting for something to happen. There's a reason some books go out of print.
October 6, 2022
This is slow-moving and is of its time but it made a pleasant read about domestic life in a 1930s middle class home.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews