The Casino

by Margaret Bonham, Cary Bazalgette (Preface)

Fifteen stories.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, British Literature

205 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1948

About the author

Margaret Bonham (1913-91) was born in London and went to Wimbledon High School for Girls. She married disastrously when very young, but re-married in 1940 and lived in Wales with her conscientious objector husband Deryck Bazalgette, who was working on the land. A daughter, Cary, was born in 1942, and a son in 1944. After the war she abandoned her family to marry Charles Kimber, the socialist inheritor of a baronetcy and affluence, with whom she shared a love of rally driving and good living; their home was a large C17th house in Oxfordshire, where two more children were born. Meanwhile she had published short stories in magazines: The Casino (1948) was her own selection; a novel came out in 1951. Her third and final marriage having collapsed, in 1960 she moved to a cottage in Devon, where she was devoted to her garden, friends and cats. After her younger son was killed in a car crash in 1972 she never wrote again.

Reviews

[Fiona MacDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just a gorgeous book full of elegant, subtle and refined stories. Margaret Bonham has a divine gentleness about the way she writes and these were the perfect morsals to devour day after day. I recommend them whole-heartedly (and am embarassed I have never heard of her before...).

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I purchased this book when visiting Persephone Books in London. The handwritten snippet about it is what caught my attention in the store; it was described as short stories that mostly revolve around unusual parent-child relationships. The stories definitely delivered on this front, and I really enjoyed about half of them ("Vicky" and "The Horse" were my favorite). The stories explore humble yet deeply interesting characters, providing a peek into their inner worlds in familiar, yet slightly off, situations. The style reminded me of Canadian author Alice Munro.

[Kit · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved THE CASINO. But, I'm going to be honest; I would give it five stars even if all the stories but one were awful. Because the one story I adore - it may be my favourite short story of all time - is so exquisite that I can barely function thinking about it.

This is basically just going to be a review of ‘A Fine Place for a Cat’, is what I'm saying.

So ‘A Fine Place for a Cat’ is about a woman and her romance with her fishmonger, which is precipitated by their mutual love of cats. That's it. That's all.

If you know me, you KNOW why this is my shit.

It's also very well-written, but even if it wasn't…

The rest of the stories are excellent, too. Margaret Bonham is very funny, has a pitch perfect sense of timing, and can convey so much in such little space.

But cats, man. Cats.

[Rosemary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Smoothly elegant short stories, most of them bringing to life unusual and/or strongminded women or small girls. Some of the women walk away from marriage either before or after the event, but there's none of the pain of an imploding relationship. Life and love is mostly taken lightheartedly.

[Samuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an amazing book

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this on my 12+ hour odyssey from my hometown back to my worktown. The vibe Bonham's prose exudes is that of being "almost there." While several short stories are an utter delight - "Vicky," "The Horse," and "The Blue Vase" for sure - other stories seem to retread a familiar ground of strange child-parent relationships. Bonham's stories do get some legitimate laughs out of this "kids say the darndest things" idiom, but as a theme stretched out over back-to-back-to-back short stories in a small time of reading duration, it gets tiresome. It gets some morbid laughs too, especially in "The Blue Vase," a silly tale about a vase mistaken for an urn.

Bonham's humor strikes an impressive balance between gentle and scathing; she is certainly merciless to many of her characters in her descriptions, which I appreciate. But much of her descriptive writing about the environs around the characters, while a tad loquacious, isn't evocative enough to maintain interest. But definitely stick around for the jokes; the book is definitely an amusing trip if you pace yourself accordingly. Or if you want to read a somewhat more British rendition of Dawn Powell's My Home Is Far Away with more silly jokes than Powell's slow-burn tragedy.

[VG · Rating 2 out of 5]

I struggled to connect with many of these stories; on the surface, they provided the reader with snippets into family relationships, particularly those between parent and child, but underneath, the relentlessly melancholy atmosphere left me bereft of emotion. I will often leave an introduction to the end, to avoid being influenced in my reading of the text; it was fascinating, this time, turning back to it after finishing the stories and seeing how much of the author and her relationship with her children was tucked into her writing.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

A neat collection of stories mostly about women facing a choice or at any rate an odd situation, made more odd by the brilliant, idiosyncratic characters in the stories. Not too brutal; a mashup of deliciously awkward, cool, headstrong and flawed people who come alive for a brief moment and made me smile (or was that a smirk?).

[JoJo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm too sure how to rate this book because some stories I enjoyed and others left me rather cold - I guess that is the joy of a collection. I wouldn't put people off of reading this because there are some nice touches, just give an awareness pf potential differences in content levels.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Angela does her homework, and her mother entertains some intellectual friends. Margaret Bonham's story read by Emma Fielding.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0076...

[JimZ · Rating 5 out of 5]

About 3 weeks ago I read a short story in the Persephone Book of Short Stories, ‘The English Lesson’, by the author, Margaret Bonham, and I liked it, so I ordered a collection of short stories by the author and was not disappointed. Wonderful collection. I enjoyed it immensely. Though not my intention initially, I read the entire collection in one day. An interesting foreword was written by her daughter, Cary Bazalgette (https://carybazalgette.net ), in 2003.

I was not expecting great things from the collection based on the first story because I could barely understand it. But that was just a momentary hiccup.

Here are the short stories in the order they appear in the collection along with my ratings for each of them. Prior to this collection being published, she published her work in periodicals/magazines such as Modern Reading, English Story, Good Housekeeping, and Harper’s Bazaar. I would guess some of these stories come from these magazines.
1. The Casino —1.5 stars
2. Vicky — 4 stars
3. The Horse — 3.5 stars
4. Inigo — 5 stars
5. The Train and the Gun — 4.5 stars
6. A Fine Place for the Cat — 5 stars
7. The English Lesson — 5 stars
8. Miss King — 4.5 stars
9. The River — 4 stars
10. The Two Mrs. Reeds — 3.5 stars
11. The Miss — 3 stars
12. Annabel’s Mother — 4 stars
13. The Blue Vase — 4 stars
14. The Professor’s Daughter — 4 stars
15. Rolliver — 4.5 stars

Reviews:
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• https://piningforthewest.co.uk/2017/0...

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[Karen Quigley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Totally charming set of short stories set in England just post-war. Well-drawn characters, with a bias towards whimsical and eccentric, realistic narratives and believable resolutions, although highly imaginative in some cases.

I looked forward to reading each one of them and was not disappointed. They are full of the slings and arrows of daily life, where the conflicts are strong because the prizes are small. The children in particular were strong people, opinionated and forceful, who create their own reality and challenge the world.

I read the Persephone version, in which one of Bonham's daughters writes a preface, which must absolutely be read at the end of the book. I would like to have known Bonham, but am not sure I would have liked her - she was not an easy person, herself constantly engaged in struggle, but what an interesting war.

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[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Angela does her homework, and her mother entertains some intellectual friends. Margaret Bonham's story read by Emma Fielding.

Broadcast on:
BBC Radio 7, 10:15am Sunday 10th January 2010

[Nick Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short stories. Abridged audio.

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