Miss Ranskill Comes Home

by Barbara Bower, Barbara Euphan Todd, Wendy Pollard (Afterword)

An unsparing, wry 1946 Miss Ranskill is shipwrecked and returns to wartime England.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Historical Fiction, World War II, British Literature, Novels, Literary Fiction

330 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1946

About the author

See also Barbara Euphan Todd

Reviews

[JimZ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just an amazing book. I had this book on my bookshelves for at least 4 months and for whatever reason just let it sit there. I had just finished a Dorothy Whipple book (The Priory) this morning, and had read all the books I had gotten from my local library, and was due to make a library run on Wednesday and had some time on Monday afternoon to dig into another book, and what to read? Oh, here’s a grey thick softcover book, a Persephone Books edition, and hmmmmm…OK I will read ‘Miss Ranskill Comes Home’.

And I put it down probably 3 hours later having read it from cover to cover. 😊 😊 😊

It started out where I did not understand what exactly was going on. A woman is burying a dead man in the sand on an island?? My slight confusion lasted for about 10 pages, and after that it was off to the races. 😊 😊 😊

Such wonderful writing. Barbara Euphan Todd wrote children’s books mostly —this was her only novel for adults. Damn, I wish she had written more books for adults! The Saturday Evening Post did something highly unusual for them at that time —they liked the book so much they published the book in three weekly installments (“Miss Ranskill Comes Home” by Barbara Bower and illustrated by George Hughes—May 4, 11, and 18, 1946). She published the book under her husband’s surname, Bower (Barbara Bower).

Synopsis: Nona Ranskill, 39-year woman, is on a world pleasure cruise sometime in the late 1930s before the outbreak of war with Germany. She drops her hat in the water and, trying to retrieve it, slips overboard, unbeknownst to anybody on the boat. She eventually lands on an island, half-drowned. A man is also deserted on that island (he also had a mishap at sea in a separate incident), and they spend 4 years together on the island. They become quite close (no sex). Barely surviving. He builds a boat—he is a carpenter by trade. Takes him 3 and half years to do that…all he has is a knife as a tool. But he suffers a heart attack and dies. After she buries him she knows she has to take the boat and try and save herself. She does… a destroyer plucks her from the water. She comes back to England. England is in the middle of WWII. Her older sister, Edith, does not welcome her back with open arms. Edith has already reconciled life without her sister… Plus the whole country is preoccupied with the war, rationing, air raids, blackout curtains, being careful what they say around others (loose lips sink ships), being deprived of all sorts of things because of the war. Nona is like a fish out of water and does not know how to behave in this time of war. She goes to the town where the carpenter’s widow resides and wants to tell her about her husband and life on the island with him for 4 years, but the woman is more concerned with making sure he is still dead so she does not have to give back some insurance money she got where he had died…there is a son the carpenter was always talking about, Colin, and she meets him at the widow’s house but the widow does not want Miss Ranskill to talk to the son….

Nona Ranskill has come back from the dead essentially and has been through hell and so little things in life that bother Edith and others around her are of little consequence to her. If she misses a bus into town, no big deal…she’ll walk the 4 miles into town. If dinner is 2 hours later or early, fine. Nothing to get all hot and bothered about. If she uses too much butter on her toast today (butter is being rationed), fine, she won’t have any butter tomorrow. Little things are just that, trivial.

I found myself writing down a number of sentences in the novel, because they were so prescient.
I gave this book 4 ½ stars perhaps in part because I was so surprised at it. I had no idea what it was about going into the book, the story line was really good, the writing was really good, and reading about life in England during WWII was interesting. I highly recommend this book! 😊

Note:
• This apparently was sold at auction on January 17, 2021—a print by George Hughes showing a woman being washed up on the beach with a man approaching her, I believe it was one of the illustrations in the Saturday Evening Post! https://www.lotsearch.net/lot/george-...
• The afterword which was quite interesting was written by Wendy Pollard in 2003. Ms. Pollard wrote a book on Rosamund Lehmann (Rosamond Lehmann and Her Critics: The Vagaries of Literary Reception), who was a well-known fiction writer in England in the 1930s-1950s (Weather in the Streets, The Ballad and the Source. Lehmann had reviewed ‘Miss Ranskill Comes Home” and said it “is a work of great originality, and delightfully readable, a blend of fantasy, satire, and romantic comedy.” Unbeknownst to Lehmann, her book Weather in the Streets, had been panned about 10 years earlier by Barbara Euphan Todd in a review published anonymously in Punch (the magazine ‘s book reviews were unsigned).

Reviews:
• This review is from Girl with Her Head in a Book and I am gratified that she loved the book as much as I did (“….Todd’s observations on social justice and the class system are as prescient today as they were when Miss Ranskill was published. Like so much of the creative media of the 1940s, her novel asks how we can move on from a crisis to a better tomorrow. As I read it in the late spring of 2020, in a global pandemic with political division and racial tensions at record highs, I have similar thoughts. I will always remember the time in my life when I first met Miss Ranskill – I have a feeling that this is destined to be my all-time favourite Persephone read. A stunning social satire full of warmth and hope – I am so glad that the lady reached the end of her journey.”: https://girlwithherheadinabook.co.uk/...
• https://shereadsnovels.com/2010/07/07...
• https://hogglestock.com/2011/11/26/bo...
• http://cosybooks.blogspot.com/2013/01...

[Diane Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Persephone Books continues it's magic. I forget when or where I bought this one, but I know it's been on my shelf for a while. I heard the siren call of the little grey books a few days ago, and decided to pull this one out. It was not love at first sight, as the premise is a little unusual and I was trying to decide if this was comedy, fairy tale or farce, fantasy or history. I ended up falling head over heels in love with Nona Ranskill and, by proxy, the Carpenter.

The Carpenter is only known by Miss Ranskill's memory of him, as the first page has her scrabbling to dig his grave in the sand of the desert island where they have spent the last 4 years together. She is rescued by a British Naval convoy as she drifts in a roughly made raft they had made together. She's taken home to an England right in the middle of a war she had no idea had started. Coupons and rationing and ID cards, gas masks and bombs, an entire vocabulary of new words and phrases that sounded like a foreign language.

Things get sorted out eventually, but Miss Ranskill can't help wishing she were back on her island where life was much simpler. Her sister is not all that happy to have her back, she meets the Carpenter's wife and son and realizes that the things he had told her about his wonderful home and marriage weren't true, and struggles to find a way to support herself and be useful.

I couldn't help but fall in love with her. A spinster with a backbone and an iron will who always takes the high road, keeps looking ahead and figures out a way to make it happen, not just for herself, but others as well.

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published in 1946, under her married name, Barbara Bower.

Description: Tells the tale of a woman who goes on a cruise and is swept overboard. She lives for three years on a desert island before being rescued by a destroyer in 1943. When she returns to England it seems to her to have gone mad: she cannot buy clothes without 'coupons', and she is considered uncivilised if she walks barefoot or is late for meals.

Opening: MISS RANSKILL SAT BACK ON HER HEELS; EVEN THAT MOVEMENT WAS an agony, driving the sand into her sweat-softened skin, but it was the torment of her hands that had forced her to stop digging. The grave was nearly deep enough. It would have to be deep enough because for two hours now she had been fighting the shale.

If anyone remembers Barbara Euphan Todd, it is probably for her stories about Worzel Gummidge, which were made into a TV series starring Jon Pertwee, and Una Stubbs as Aunt Sally.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Barbara Euphan Todd is well-known for her series of children's books about Worzel Gummidge, a talking scarecrow (I've never read any, but I'd heard of them), but much less known for Miss Ranskill Comes Home, her only adult novel, which I read in a lovely Persephone edition.

The book opens with a shock: Miss Ranskill, marooned on a desert island for years with only the Carpenter for company (the man, also marooned, already on the island when she washed ashore), now must bury her only friend, who died suddenly. Fortuitously, she is rescued from the island soon after and returns to England -- but it isn't the England she knew, for she was marooned before World War II broke out, and England is in the midst of the Blitz.

Her process of readjustment is funny and bitter at once, as she strives to figure out how to deal with blackouts, rationing, air raids, and the myriad of other wartime things she's never known before, and with an unexpected legacy from the Carpenter (not what you might think). It's an odd but wonderful book, one of the best Persephones I've read.

[Tania · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nona Ranskill fell overboard froma cruise ship and was washed up on a dessert island. Here, her only company is The Carpenter, who had also found himself on the island. They develop a close, platonic relationship as they find ways to cope with their new life. When the Carpenter dies, Miss Ranskill takes the boat they've been building and sets off to try and make it home. She is rescued and comes back to an England she finds unrecognisable to the one she left. Now in the middle of WW2, she finds everyonebusy trying to organise everything from evacuees to ARP's. Everything is rationed and she finds life most peculiar having suffered far more deprivation on her island.Why shouldn't she eat all her butter rations in one go if she wants. Others are just as baffled by her as she by them.

An unusual view of life during the war.I think Miss Ranskill is a character that will stay with me for a long time.

[Sylvester (Taking a break in 2023) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this book should be getting more attention. Whatever department head assigns books to be classics has been asleep on the job. Although it seems like a humorous and ironical little story, its just prickling with barbs against society and the status quo - valid contentions, too. I have to say, Miss Ranskill's reaction to much of the British home-front attitude toward WW2 was exactly opposite to anything else I've ever read or understood. I had to laugh, it was so contrary and, well, true. I mean, here is this woman who has just spent years just trying to survive, trying to keep warm and fed and endure until rescue or escape is possible, and she gets home right in the middle of a war. She, of anyone should know exactly what matters, and what to do - and she does! But it wasn't at all what I expected (or anyone expected). For instance, she has a very hard time with rationing - she irritates everyone by eating all her allowance for butter and jam in one sitting, for having a bath with over 10 inches of hot water, and for scoffing at the canning crusade that the women have begun (her contention is that they never ate much canned fruit before the war - and now they were supposed to stuff themselves?). All this might seem the complaints of a crank, and I won't deny she's cranky, but when she contrasts her experience on the island, and the words of her dear friend, the Carpenter, who was there with her, I could see what she was getting at. All the keeping windows blacked out and military-like committees for re-purposing curtains into clothing and the competitive devotion to denying one's self, the sense of mistrust and suspicion between neighbors - was a culture of death, not life. She had just experienced a different kind of enduring and surviving, one not focused on the negative, but appreciative of daily blessings, of kindness and generosity in relationships, and focus on hope for the future. The kind of survival that broke down barriers of class and even civility (the unnecessary kind), and brought people closer together. (Which is not to say that this didn't happen during the war, but Miss Ranskill saw the negative in sharp contrast because of her recent island experience - and got cranky about it.)

There were so many stand-out moments, I couldn't possibly get them all in. I absolutely loved that she did her blackout duty barefoot,(4 years barefoot makes a shoe feel like a foot-coffin) and when she saw a chink of light anywhere, knocked at the door, and made some new friends. I love the moment she had to admit she made a promise to a cat. Or having to explain why she and the Carpenter chose to use bank notes instead of regular notebook pages to start a fire (you'll have to read it yourself to find out why). And the ending? Perfection. Miss Ranskill finds a way through - again.

"Miss Ranskill was quite aware that she was being difficult and tiresome."

I highly recommend.

[Elinor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had this book on my list of wartime reading for some time, hesitating only because the average rating is 3.88. Well, it is a good lesson for me not to place my faith too heavily on the opinions of others, because I thought this book was delightful and was sorry to see it end. Miss Ranskill is an old maid, plain and simple, but with hidden depths of character. And she actually DOES something at the end rather than thinking about it. The relationship between her and The Carpenter, who dies before the book begins, is as compelling as any romance. How I wish the author had written another novel for adults.

[Aimee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Miss Ranskill Comes Home is the story of Nona Ranskill, younger sister of Edith, who is swept overboard on an ocean cruise shortly before the outbreak of WW2. She washes up on a desert island, already inhabited by another castaway, the Carpenter, and together they survive (platonically) on the island for four years, keeping each other's spirits up and arduously building a boat using a jackknife, rocks, shells, boiling water, and carved pegs to hold the timbers together, in order that they may have a chance of getting home.
That, however, is merely the set-up for the heart of the novel: Miss Ranskill's return to England. After four long years, she comes back to find her home irrevocably and inexplicably changed by the war.
"Miss Ranskill put her hand to her aching head. Had the language changed, or had she forgotten words? Was she, perhaps, a trifle mad? Rip VanWinkle could scarcely have felt more puzzled than she did. What had happened in her absence that fantastic horrors could be described so casually? Even the language was secret from her, full of strange words and alphabetical sequences."
The contrast between Miss Ranskill's fantastical stranding and rescue by destroyer and the realities of the country to which she returns drive the satire that drives the book. Why should one ration one's butter with a thin scraping of it on ones bread for seven days, when it would be much more satisfying to slather it on toast the first day and have none the other six? Why do class divisions still drive so many decisions when "we're all in this together"? Funny, wry, witty, and observant as only an outsider can be, Miss Ranskill knows what's important.
I didn't expect to like this book as much as I did, though I am fond of Homefront WW2 stories. Miss Ranskill Comes Home is a brilliant blend of fantastical happenings and real-world satire with heart and poignant hope.

[Veronique · Rating 4 out of 5]

While browsing in Persephone shop, my eyes were immediately caught by the premise of this novel - a woman falls off a cruise, washes ashore an island (already inhabited by one castaway), where she survives for over 3 years, and finally is rescued and returns to an England at war that she doesn’t recognise! Sounds unreal, and there is an aspect of fantasy here, but Barbara Euphan Todd, of the Worzel Gummage fame, offers a very smart and thought-provoking read that is fun too.

Both comic and tragic, the author uses the figure of Miss Ranskill to zero in on the many absurdities during the war, especially that of closed mindedness and self-righteous patriotism. Nona stumbles from one person to the next, not understanding what is going on. And no wonder - there is plenty of babbling but no one truly listens anymore! Ranskill knows what it means to survive but her experience was one based on the positive, while in England she is constantly faced by negativity and ridicule. All the scenes are highly entertaining and add up to an engaging comedy, but one with bite that makes you look at things from another perspective. Todd’s lyrical writing style is delightful too.

And what of the Carpenter, Miss Ranskill’s survival partner on the island? Theirs was a true and deep friendship (platonic) that disregarded social classes. Even though he dies at the very beginning of the book, his voice keeps supporting Nona through her ordeals, providing comfort and courage. I won’t reveal the excellent end but to say that it gave a nice symmetry :O)

[❀⊱RoryReads⊰❀ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Stars. Delightful and poignant. An absolute gem.

[Hux · Rating 3 out of 5]

A woman is in the process of burying her only companion on a desert island, the man in question being a fellow British survivor of a (different) shipwreck during the second world war. He is referred to as the carpenter and the two of them have been stranded on this island for four years. He dies but just prior to his death he has built a raft and, once the body is buried, Miss Ranskill finally makes her attempt to escape the island. She is soon rescued at sea by a navy ship and taken back to England.

This is where the book plays with its biggest themes: a woman, with no knowledge of the war's existence, returning to an England that is currently being bombed, forced to ration, and changed irrevocably. There are times when even the language seems strange to her. She returns to her older sister, Edith, but their relationship is strained, and, belatedly, she visits the wife of the carpenter only to discover that she is more concerned with the electricity metre and the potential for his life insurance to be take away from her. 

It's an interesting idea for a novel (dropped into a war you didn't know was happening) but there were a couple of issues which spoiled it for me. Firstly, the best part of the book is the fact that Miss Ranskill continues to hear the carpenter's voice in her head throughout the novel. What he would have said in each situation, how he would have advised her. His voice is probably more dominant than any other, including her own. This is a problem because it made me want more of him, at least to read the prequel to this book where the two of them are stranded on the island. How did they survive, how did their relationship develop? That appealed to me more than anything else and made her return to England slightly redundant. The second issue was connected to some unanswered questions such as: why on earth did't they have sex when they were alone on the island? I mean really. Was I missing something? A purely platonic relationship for four years? Again, I wanted to go back to that island which was probably not a good sign for the novel I was reading. Bower (or Todd depending on which copy you have) clearly wanted to use the stranded island as a mere starting point to explore the idea of war to someone who knew nothing about it but she inadvertently created a starting point which I found more interesting than what followed. 

It's still interesting but I always felt like I was waiting for something, Anyway, it was okay, nothing special. It passed the time. The writing is often very good though it did occasionally drag and I did get the feeling that Bower was writing seven chapters when, in truth, two would have been sufficient in getting the information across. Otherwise, it was a quaint wartime novel. 

[Hilary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the beginning of this book where Miss Ranskill describes life with the carpenter on the island. I loved the description of how they would take each other to the movies by describing scenes to each other and what they would do when they were home. I would have really enjoyed more about their island life. I found the confusion of the return went on slightly but I think the way Miss Ranskill changed and the way she had different values after her experience was well thought out. The end was heart warming and reminiscent of Six Bad Boys.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable, funny and interesting, although a bit slow in parts.

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved this satirical book, Barbara Euphon Todd uses the story of middle aged woman arriving back to a Britain at war, after almost four years on a desert island - to take a wry look at wartime regulations,and the English class system. Those men and particularly women who seemed to roll up their sleeves rather gleefully during the war years and who saw it as their personal mission to ensure all the new rules and regulations were adhered to. Ration books, coupons, black out, air raids, the all clear, rationing is all new to Miss Ranskill and she has a hard time getting to grips with it all. At the same time she is mourning the carpenter the man she shared the desert island with - and whose family she eagerly looks up as soon as she can, and is saddened when they don't live up to her expectations.

Another great Persephone read.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful way to start the new year! I've had this book on my shelf for years and I always thought it would be a somewhat cozy read about Britain's home front during the war. So I was surprised when the book opens with a woman digging a grave with her bare hands to bury her only companion on a desert island. It's not giving anything away to say that Miss Ranskill makes her way home from that island but everything has changed. The country is now at war, food and clothing cannot be purchased without ration coupons, blackouts and bomb shelters are the norm. As she struggles to make her way in this strange new world we also get to see the villagers from her fresh eyes. This book had me laughing one minute and tearing up the next. I longed to take Miss Ranskill in and protect her from her well-meaning friends and sister. This book deserves to be rediscovered!

[Jana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miss Ranskill comes home to a totally different world than the one she last saw. War coupons, rationing, blackout curtains, German bombers overhead! What a world she’s come back to. Excellent story. I loved her fiesty spirit, but wanted to throttle many of her aquaintances, friends and family.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shortly before the start of World War II, Nona Ranskill was swept overboard whilst on a cruise and was washed up on a desert island. The only other inhabitant of the island is a man known as 'the Carpenter', who had also fallen overboard on an earlier occasion. At the beginning of the book, the Carpenter has died and we first meet Miss Ranskill as she's digging his grave. After burying the Carpenter, Miss Ranskill makes an attempt to escape from the island - and luckily she is rescued by the British Navy. Returning to England after almost four years, Miss Ranskill discovers that it's not the England she left behind: in her absence, World War II has begun..

This may all sound very far-fetched, but Todd actually makes it seem believable. I thought the whole idea of someone being cut off from the world and returning home only to find themselves suddenly thrown into the middle of a war was absolutely fascinating. I particularly enjoyed the first half of the book which deals with the first few days of Miss Ranskill's arrival in England, when everything feels strange and surreal. Even the English language seems different and full of unfamiliar words. When she tries to buy food she can't understand why she's asked for her 'ration book', or why she needs 'coupons' to purchase clothes. This leads to some very amusing situations but at the same time you can't help but feel sorry for poor Miss Ranskill.

Although he's dead before the story even begins, the strongest character in the book is the Carpenter. He is constantly in Miss Ranskill's thoughts and his presence is there on almost every page in the form of flashbacks and memories. His optimism and words of wisdom had helped to sustain Miss Ranskill during her time on the island and continue to give her comfort on her return to wartime Britain.

However, the years on the island and the company of the Carpenter have given her a new outlook on life and she finds it difficult to adjust. Unlike her friends and family who are all absorbed in their war work, Miss Ranskill feels detached from what's going on and spends most of the book remembering the island and even feeling nostalgic about the fact that she had to eat fish for every meal and wear the same clothes for nearly four years! England may have changed, but Miss Ranskill has changed even more.

This book has the perfect blend of humour and poignancy and gives us an opportunity to explore World War II from a unique perspective.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was not what I expected, it was better. When I first opened this book I thought I would be reading a variation on the movie My Favorite Wife with Cary Grant and Irene Dunne, a silly screwball kind of thing. The only similarity between this book and that movie is the return of a woman who has been missing for several years and presumed dead. In fact, Miss Ranskill was swept overboard while on a pleasure cruise. She washes up on an island where another castaway has been surviving, the Carpenter. Together, over the course of 3 1/2 years they build a boat to escape the island. Unfortunately, the Carpenter passes away before they can leave. Miss Ranskill sets out on her own and is rescued by a navy convoy. In her absence, WWII is well under way. She returns to an England that is as foreign to her as the island was at first. The story chronicles her return to a land where she barely understands the language: coupons, rations, acronyms, etc. She understands even less the culture that has developed during the war. This is a book about coming to understand what is essential and about finding home again, even if that is different than what you had remembered and dreamed about.
Highly recommended.

[Gill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This 1946 novel is about a woman who goes on a cruise and is swept overboard; she lives for four years on a desert island before being rescued by a destroyer in 1943. When she returns to England it seems to her to have gone mad: she cannot buy clothes without 'coupons', her friends are only interested in 'war work', and yet she is considered uncivilised if she walks barefoot or is late for meals. The focus of Barbara Euphan Todd's satire is people behaving heroically and appallingly at one and the same time.

It's an absolutely wonderful book and I thoroughly enjoyed it, laughter and tears. You can't help but feel for Miss Ranskill when she returns to the UK and is thrust into the drab austerity of WWII, with unfamiliar restrictions and a language all of its own.

Miss Ranskill put a hand to her aching head. Had the language changed or had she forgotten words? Was she, perhaps, a trifle mad? Rip Van Winkle could scarcely have felt more puzzled than she did. What had happened in her absence that fantastic horrors could be described so casually? Even the language was secret from her, full of strange words and alphabetical sequences.

Even as she gets to grips with the mysteries of ration books and horror of air raids, life on the island has given her new perspective and Miss Ranskill's new-found class consciousness is incomprehensible to her old friends and her sister.

Barbara Euphan Todd is best known as the author of the Worzel Gummidge books, and this was her only novel for adults.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Miss Ranskill Comes Home' was published in 1946 and is written by Barbara Euphan Todd,who is well known for her 'Worzel Gummidge' Stories for children.
When Nona Ranskill trips and falls overboard a ship trying to rescue her hat, she finds herself washed up on a remote desert island.She soons discovers she was rescued by a man who also has become stranded upon the island too.
Three years pass by and her companion who she calls 'Carpenter' dies. After the ordeal of the burial,Miss Ranskill sets out into the ocean in the little boat the Carpenter spent years making.
After being rescued by a destroyer, she discovers that Britain is in the middle of a war she had no idea was happening.
Once back home, she is confused why she needs ration coupons to buy clothes and food and can't understand why everyone thinks she is a spy because she has no identity card.
This is a great read which is full of humour and another highly recommended book republished by Persephone Books.

[Kavan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miss Ranskill Comes Home begins interestingly enough with the lead character, Nona Ranskill burying the body of the only other occupant of a desert island, and then using his boat to escape. Now if this book was written today it would most likely be a murder mystery, a whodunit where we spent the entire novel waiting to see how and why the lead character did what she did. Much to my surprise and pleasure that was not remotely the story author Barbara Euphan Todd had in mind.

Instead this is a novel about the week or so following Miss Ranskill’s return to wartime England, and the adjustments one must make after being presumed dead for years. This is a very unique and sometimes surreal novel. It is also compulsively readable and consistently fascinating.

While vacationing seven years before, Nona Ranskill was swept off her cruise ship. She landed on an island that was deserted save a single other occupant, the carpenter. The carpenter turns out to be something of a working class philosopher capable of creating both tools and fantasies to help them endure the hard times. He and Miss Ranskill spent the following years together in a platonic fashion. His death, which predates the beginning of the novel, seemingly imbues Nona with the courage to try to escape. However, upon her escape Nona returns to a war changed Britain.

Throughout their captivity Nona and the Carpenter have reminisced fondly over their plans upon their return to England. However, Nona returns to not to cozy tea, afternoon picnics, and rural life, but instead to a world of ration books, fifth columnists, and frantic self-satisfied war workers. Meanwhile the skills she developed on the island seem utterly ill suited for domestic life. One of the more memorable sections of the novel concerns how a routine shopping trip to purchase new clothing, turns into an almost Kafkaish adventure involving the police, and charges of treason. At times I felt Euphan Todd pressed the satiric surreal nature of WWII Britain a bit too far. Yet, she also reigned the action back in.

The final section of the book is the strongest. Returned to her sister and friends Nona finally reckons with her relationship with the carpenter and the effect her desert island era has had on her ability to ever recapture her pre-island life.

It is deeply unfortunate Barbara Euphan Todd wrote only one adult novel. Miss Ranskill Comes Home suggests she had much to add to post WWII British literature.

[Toast · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a gem! A brilliant book about being the complete outsider, the alien in your own home. Miss Ranskill fell of a cruise ship before the war and survived on a desert island with an elderly ships carpenter. Sadly, he dies after finishing making a small boat to escape with. MR duly tries and is saved by the British navy, as you would be. She is the only woman abroad, poorly etc so the officers, trying to spare her feelings/nerves/etc give her only the briefest news that WW2 is now afoot. Back in Portsmouth or is it Plymouth? Afterall careless talk costs lives, MR tries to buy clothes - she can't no coupons, tidy up her hair and make up ie hide her tan, eat - again no coupons and is eventually chased through the town as a spy! This very polite lady tries to get home, she can't its in a restricted zone; learns about air raids; gets her identity back, and her bank balance, and gets coupons, finds her sister, finds the ships carpenter's family and generally manages to beautifully survive on another hostile, foreign island. It is a charming read; funny with a serious undercurrent, honest, of its time and wonderfully written.
Loved it
Toast

[Rosemary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Forty-year-old Englishwoman Nona Ranskill was washed up on a desert island just before the outbreak of World War II. She returns to England four years later, haunted by memories of the man who platonically shared the island with her and completely unprepared for the bombs, rationing and disruption that she finds in England.

This is a strange and haunting book. I loved the premise and the characters but sometimes I was suprised by what the author chose to tell or not tell. It felt a little disjointed to me, especially in the second half, and some things I would have liked to have heard about were skipped. But a great book all the same.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A clever satire from the author of the Worzel Gummidge children's books that I used to love so much. Barbara Euphan Todd gives a very original, comical view of society during WWII, with all those "do-gooders". It is, in fact, a story with more depth than it seems at first; a study of wartime relationships, regulations and the class system, related with great wit. What a shame she only wrote one novel for adults.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Stuck on a desert island for four years, this book follows Miss Ranskill's life upon her return home. My only quibble is I had a lot of questions about her life on the island that went unanswered.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This fine novel did not in any way go in the direction that I thought. It is deep and thoughtful, moving and plausible in a way hard to explain. Characters ring true and surprise, disappoint, and delight the reader much as they do in life. This is one that you know you'll re-read at some point.

[Jeanette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny, sad and ironic. Might just be my favorite Persephone re-print yet.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a charming little book! Though at times predictable and a bit far fetched, I enjoyed the simplicity found in the escapism of the story. Which I think the readers of time enjoyed as well.

[Raymah Tariq · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is perhaps my favourite book of the year so far. It appears lighthearted and maybe even masquerades as a ‘cosy read’ (I think it might be a cosy read for me, it was delightful to read and I really stretched out those last 50 pages for as long as I could), but truly a great satire piece commentating on WWII society (this was published a year after the war) whilst also addressing of themes such of PTSD and grief. Todd tactfully balances affection and whimsy alongside introspection, frustration and upset, and brings the day to day living of WWII to life with such vibrancy (arguing about how others use their rations even though it doesn't affect oneself is something that would totally happen today). 


There was a wonderful passage where our character is in a train looking at an airman on his way to service and he’s sleeping, and she wonders how he’ll be when he comes back from the war. If he will be able to return to menial work (my paraphrasing) and draws parallel to the fallout of the workforce at the end of WWI, “fingers that gripped joy-sticks had closed gratefully on the tips of war profiteers at petrol-filling stations”. And the scene where Miss Ranskill finally gets back to her home was so achingly written it has made me yearn for my childhood bedroom for the first time in a long long time. 



(Also, not necessary for the review, but my fan-cast for Miss Ranskill is Emily Blunt)

[Pascale · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the most convincing title in Persephone's wonderful catalogue. The author's take on daily life in WWII England is interesting and she does a fine job of skewering the self-righteous matrons who have a ball applying emergency regulations to the letter while being vicious to evacuees and especially Jews. However, her satire is a bit too broad and relentless to be effective. Similarly, the sentimental plot (Miss Ranskill's unconsummated love-affair with a lower-class man, and her subsequent rescue of the man's little boy) lacks subtlety. All told, this book has its heart in the right place, and contains some fine lyrical prose, but the material isn't very well shaped, and the symbolism rather too obvious (did I mention the guy is a Carpenter with a capital C?).