Consider the Years

by Virginia Graham

Second World War poems by Joyce Grenfell's best friend and collaborator. Preface by Anne Harvey.

Genres: Poetry, Fiction

136 pages, Paperback

First published November 2, 2000

About the author

Virginia^Graham, the daughter of the humorist Harry Graham (author of Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless People), was brought up in nannied affluence near Hyde Park and sent to Notting Hill High School. As a child she played with Joyce Grenfell; the two became friends for life, Virginia writing or collaborating on many of Joyce’s songs; she also wrote her own poems, columns, essays and film reviews, and translated novels from the French. In 1939 she married Tony Thesiger; like Joyce Grenfell she had no children. Consider the Years (1946) is a collection of her poetry evoking her life during the war, in London and Bristol, as life continued ‘as normal’ while she worked for the WVS. A lifelong and committed Christian Scientist, Virginia Graham was ‘passionately addicted to music, poetry, the theatre and friends; rather less fond of children, animals and the country’. She died in 1993 at the age of 83.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was somewhat discouraged upon reading the first poem, Fox-trot, which is about how boring the poet finds a ball put on by the local fox hunt. Is this going to be a book of twee verse about the 'First World Problems' of a privileged elite? I put the book to one side, wondering briefly if I should keep it, the inevitable conclusion to which was, "Yes".

Skip on a couple or four years, and I'm giving it another go. Same reaction to Fox-trot, but this time I persevere and, gradually, get into Graham's world. She's a bit of a sly one! What I thought was twee is social commentary, usually with a gentle (though sometimes not-so-gentle) barb. There's wistfulness and realism, fear and resiliance, humour, sarcasm and wit to be found here. Some nice parodies, too, of other poets, of which my favourite was her homage to Rudyard Kipling's If. Her put-down of the Wiltshire town of Swindon comes unexpectedly at the end of a love poem. Graham does this a few times, with a twinkle in the eye that put me in mind of some of Morrissey's sardonic twist-in-the-tale lyrics.

The poems chart Graham's course through the English Home Front during WWII, and give glimpses into the lives and aspirations of others, mainly ordinary, middle-class people. She's often interested in the experience of social judgement, such as her feeling of guilt at having squandered money on a few minor luxuries, in the face of the perceived disapproval of fellow public transport travellers. She's good at contrasting the petty concerns of the rich and privileged (into whose ranks she was born) with the more vital and urgent concerns of the 'lower classes'.

It took me a while to appreciate the quality and content of Graham's poetry, but they were much more to my liking than those of Lord Dunsany's War Poems, written at about the same time and which I found much too jingoistic and gung-ho for my taste.

[Jesse · Rating 2 out of 5]

Observations of the mundane, told dryly. There seems to have been a war between the first and last entries, but it's hard to tell.

Oddly, the flippant tone reminds me of Twitter posts during the pandemic.

[Cathrine Hoffner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very forgettable. I didn’t laugh, and I wasn’t moved. I really didn’t like the tone of this. I feel like she treated the themes of war a little too frivolous at times. I tabbed one poem out of the entire collection, and that was “Aunts”, perhaps because it was relatable or because I tend to enjoy aunts in fiction.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book of wartime poems was exactly what I wanted to be. Ever so English, the poignancy is made with flippant jokes masking terror and despair. Virginia Graham uses comedy - probably inherited from her comic writer father - to juxtapose the internal and external lives of those bombarded by war. A few poems are in French and German and many use beautifully diverse vocabulary. Much imagery to do with musical performance, aiding your nation with menial tasks and the utter ridiculousness of the obscenely rich. I believe I marked half of the many poems as exceptional, which is saying something!

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a lovely surprise. A collection of verses set in and around London in the 1940s. If you enjoy the fiction of Molly Panter-Downs or Elizabeth Berridge, these poems will feel very familiar. Witty but somehow still capturing the gravity of the Blitz, the shortages, the despair. Poignant and lots of details about daily life during wartime. I really enjoyed making my way slowly through this collection and am going to seek out more about her.

[Charlotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charmingly written and often so bright in their hilarity. Through the satire and the good humour, Graham makes some extremely valid points that will always last beyond war time and last to humanity. Adapting her outlook on the world is something I should like to do a lot more of. My favourites of hers would have to be General Knowledge and Somewhere At Home.

[Imogen King · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this but it’s a disappointing collection. The poems fall quite flat and are often very contrived. There is some life to the collection, but it generally appears in the strangeness of some of the poetic figures. The only strokes of genius seem to be borrowed from other writers.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining collection of poetry, very much of its time (World War Two) - thought-provoking and amusing.

[Alastair Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a definite change through the years as the second world war changes her style, but the poems are funny, thought-provoking and beautifully constructed.

[Darcey · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars.