How to Measure a Cow

by Margaret Forster

‘Compelling…taut and suspenseful’ GuardianTara Fraser has a secret. Desperate to escape herself and her past, she changes her name, packs up her London home and moves to a town in the North of England where she knows no one. But one of her new neighbours, Nancy, is intrigued by her. And as hard as Tara tries to distance herself, she starts to drop her guard. Then a letter arrives. An old friend wants to meet up. Struggling to keep her old life at bay, Tara soon discovers the dangers of fighting the past.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, British Literature, Book Club, Novels

308 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 3, 2016

About the author

Margaret Forster was educated at the Carlisle and County High School for Girls. From here she won an Open Scholarship to Somerville College, Oxford where in 1960 she was awarded an honours degree in History.

From 1963 Margaret Forster worked as a novelist, biographer and freelance literary critic, contributing regularly to book programmes on television, to Radio 4 and various newpapers and magazines.

Forster was married to the writer, journalist and broadcaster Hunter Davies. They lived in London. and in the Lake District. They had three children, Caitlin, Jake and Flora.

Reviews

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of those books where you get to the end and wonder what the point was, although I do now know how to measure a cow but how this even related to the story line I have no idea.

Meet Sarah, who was Tara. You will spend 300 pages together and leave her with a ton of questions and still have no idea who she really is or what she did.

A bizarre book that makes you want to wear a grey jumper.

Two stars.

[William Koon · Rating 4 out of 5]

How to Measure A Cow by Margaret Forster was part of an experiment in going back to some writers I enjoyed many years ago and to see how they fared. Unfortunately, this was the last novel written by the prolific Ms. Forster, but it’s a doozy.

On the surface, it’s one of those dreadful novels about middle aged women finding themselves. You have Tara who is now Sarah and has moved to Cumbria for some mysterious reason. It’s enough to make you stop reading. But don’t. You see Sarah has many secrets not just one big one which has caused her to change identities from a flame haired wild child to a nondescript near bag woman working in a box factory.

She is saved by a brilliantly formed character named Nancy, an elderly lady who lives opposite and who is one of the four narrators of the work. Nancy has secrets of her own, not the least of which is that tea is necessary for all things.

Throughout we see Forster manipulating us as readers into thinking we understand the character of Tara/Sarah. But we don’t. Even with the beautiful development that Forster accomplishes, we sometimes say huhhh? What? How did she do that to me?

The author is careful to control her plotline and her cast of characters from the other teen friends of long ago, “girls” who are all happily married –somewhat—to a shadowy husband to a father who is keenly drawn.

Yes, the title is a put off, but hey! So was “How To Stuff A Wild Bikini.” Not everything can be perfect. Ms. Forster says farewell in a subtle and complete work.

[Steven · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wouldn't normally do this, but I'm giving the book a star only because the author was dying from cancer at the time she wrote this - yes, it's that bad. This is the worst 'novel' I've ever read. It's not even a novel per se - it's the sketch for a novel that was never fleshed out with actual scenes and real characters, it's just the notes. I can't even begin listing all its problems, from paper-thin characters, inconsistent actions with no supporting motivation/back-story, and a majority of scenes being told to the reader instead of shown. The choice of sparse dialogue also left much wanting, including the basic mechanics of how the speech was represented (quotations vs. no indicator, which varied and was not well-thought-out).

It seems the author's other books might be better-written, so I'm not willing to entirely write her off, but this novel is definitely a write-off (that's about how the prose 'flowed' lol).

[Lady Drinkwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its years since Ive read Margaret Forster and after having read this her last book I have the urge to go back and reread. This is a very engrossing little story with a touch of mystery to it and some great character development. I did find the ending a bit rushed though.

[DubaiReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

New name, new town. new life (3.5 stars)

This short, concise novel by Margaret Forster was an enjoyable read that I looked forward to picking up, but I felt that it was let down by a rushed, unsatisfactory ending. I had previously read only one other novel by this author, 'Over', similarly short and succinct and also about people reeling from the after-effects of a life-shattering event.

The central character of How to Measure a Cow, is the vibrant, unstable Tara Fraser who chooses to restart her life as the dull, grey, Sarah Scott. The blurb doesn't say why she needs to make a new start so I shan't add any spoliers here. She chooses her destination by sticking a pin into a map and moves into Workington to begin her new unobtrusive existence.
An elderly neighbour, Nancy, watches her move into the house over the road and is desperate to know more about her, while simultaneously shrinking from being too forward or asking invasive questions. This fear of stepping out of line rules Nancy's life entirely, she is the total antithesis of the gossipy neighbour. Tara/Sarah has no friends in the area and the two start to form a guarded friendship, in spite of the large difference in age.
We learn a fair bit about Tara's past but, frustratingly little about Nancy's - other than the fact that she was a farmer's daughter and knows how to measure a cow!
Three friends from Tara's teenage years bring a bit of colour to the line-up, but none of them are particularly likable and they're not sure how much they really like Tara either.

This is one of those well written books that conjure up convincing characters and images, while failing to produce anything much that actually happens. In spite of that I enjoyed it, I just wish the ending had been a bit more conclusive.

As Margaret Forster, sadly, died in February, this will be her last book, but there is an extensive back catalogue and I'm sure I shall be enjoying more of her books in the future.

[Jan Laney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intriguing start which draws you into the plot and makes you want to learn more about the characters. The pace is slow and tense but the unfolding story a bit weak and the ending disappointing. I was expecting something far more dramatic.

[Frances · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read most of this on a train journey; Margaret Forster was a wonderful writer however this was published after her death and feels unfinished...I think Tara/Sarah might have gone on to plan a couple more murders!! I wonder if someone else decided on the ending?

[Tracey · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was really intriguing to begin with and had lots of potential for mystery but seemed to just dwindle as the book went on and there wasn't really much of a mystery at all. Disappointed!

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since my teens (and I'm now in my forties, so a long time) I've admired Forster's writing, and so I felt shock and sadness at her death, and the knowledge that there would be no more books from her. This, her final novel, proved to me one last time that Forster was an expert storyteller. Her turn of phrase, her ability to evoke emotion, her spare yet powerful sentences, all combined in this novel to remind me of her genius.
'How to measure a cow' is a strange book, and really, when I think about it, not much happens in it. But that didn't matter. I was gripped by the characters; Tara/Sarah, a secretive woman with a past, and Nancy, an old woman with so little in her life that other people's lives are fascinating to her.
Here is an extract, one of many examples I could have chosen that highlight Forster's phenomenal writing ability:
'Afterwards, once home, Nancy badly needed someone to listen to an account of her Trip (this was how she was already referring to it) but there was no chance of that. So she decided to describe it to herself, making a tale of it, editing and improving it as she went along. She would pretend that she was neither herself nor Sarah Scott but a narrator - that was the right term, wasn't it? - telling a story in which she had no part. Then she could refer to herself as Nancy, or Mrs Armstrong. She loved this idea. She hummed hymns as she took her coat off and set about making her tea. Then she began her tale. They'd had a cup of tea while they were on the Trip, but nothing to eat...'


Thank you Margaret Forster for all your books I have enjoyed over the years.

[Lenore]

Another well written and entertaining book by Margaret Foster. The story is interesting and the development of the characters within it are thorough and believable. I am just sorry that this was probably her final book.

[Jill Lawson · Rating 1 out of 5]

I chose this book because I'd previously enjoyed the author, but was very disappointed. If you describe the plot and its development it sounds interesting but in practice didn't work for me. None of the characters or their relationships rang true.

[Moira Collett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not one of Margaret Forster’s best but nevertheless a compelling, easy read. It was very easy to work out what secret Tara was hiding but interesting to see how the author managed to unravel the details of the ‘mystery past’ so slowly. I think that my problem with it was that none of the characters were really very likeable.

[Phoebe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed

[Janette BM · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great potential and thrilling read but it just fizzled out at the end

[Caroline Hewitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the character Nancy but disappointed by the ending. Felt rushed to me

[Lee Lee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thought I’d give the book a read, was intrigued by the title. Read a few reviews and it kind of put me off about halfway through...Although I carried on reading I kept expecting something and it didn't happen. Never heard of the author until I read this and don't plan on reading any further material.

[Jacki (Julia Flyte) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a slow moving but totally absorbing book about a woman trying to build a new life after spending time in prison. When we meet Tara she has recently been released after serving 10 years (we will learn why over the course of the book). Her friends have drifted away and she gets abused by strangers on the street who recognise her from the publicity at the time of the trial. She decides to make a fresh start. She chooses a town in Cumbria at random, adopts a new name – Sarah Scott – and gets a mindless job in a factory. She deliberately tries to make herself as unobtrusive as possible: keeping to herself, wearing neutral colours, not engaging in conversations.

Living across the road from "Sarah" is Nancy, an elderly lady with little to do but observe the people around her. Nancy is a wonderful character, very much a product of her generation and her solitary life. Nancy is curious about Sarah and gradually the two form a guarded friendship. It is Nancy who had the farm upbringing that gives the book its title.

I had never read a book by Margaret Forster before and I am simultaneously delighted to discover that she has a huge back catalogue and gutted to realise that this is her last book, as she passed away in February. She has a wonderfully descriptive way of pulling you into the book and she keeps you riveted without spelling out for you exactly what is happening. It's not a long book but it is immensely satisfying.

Sarah/Tara is a complicated character who is intriguing but not likeable. By the end of the book I felt as if we the reader had been treated much like Nancy - only seeing what she wanted us to see, being slightly played. I felt like this was a book written by someone in complete control of their talent and it was masterful.

[Laura Lacy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have not read a book by this author before, so I do not have anything to compare it to. After looking her up, I see that she was quite a prolific writer, a few books are also very well known.
Sadly, I am not impressed by this book. It seems unfinished. The story is disjointed and the characters are hard to like, especially the main character.
The title of this book is what drew me in, it is a great title. However, the title has nothing to do with the book. With the exception a single, short conversation the main character had with a neighbor, the title does not appear to even symbolize anything in the book.
Everything about this book seems more like the outline for a story, not fleshed out yet, a first draft.
I feel, that since this was the author’s final book, this would explain the feeling of being incomplete. Perhaps, she did not actually finish it.
I plan look up and read another of her books just to see whether this is her actual style of writing or if in fact this novel is simply unfinished.

[Teresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ultimately thin ending but nevertheless a book I found myself riveted to. We are led along by good writing and something unfolding but in the end it isn't what you expect. I really enjoyed it but, for me, there was no sense of anything other than being presented with a middle and a pre-shortened ending as if the writer runs out of steam and cannot be bothered. Susan Hill is another author who has done this, so maybe it is a trend in writing to get to a point where you haven't any more energy to think out a plot and resolve your story telling in a more satisfactory way. I would still recommend reading this but with reservations.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very unfortunately this is Margaret Forster's last book. Told insimple direct prose, this book is anything but simple. Tara has a new identity after having been released from prison. Gradually we learn her story as she tries to settle into a new life. Her only friend is the prickly, elderly neighbour Nancy Armstrong, who explains to her how to measure a cow. A thoughtful and well written book.

[Dee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed feelings - did I read it differently knowing there will never be another by her? The subject matter didn't speak to me the way most of her other books have, though it's an intriguing topic, leaving your past behind.........

[Michele · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book that mentions Workington, Pica Cleator Moor, Egremont and Cockermouth has got to be good. Margaret Forster is a wonderful writer.So good it seems effortless and yet the marvellous creation that is Nancy comes not without effort. I am left however wanting to know so much more.

[K.E. Coles · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Loved the writing but the story never really took off for me. It's the first Margaret Forster I've read & have been told her earlier works are fantastic, so will certainly be giving them a go.

[Christina Houen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Margaret Forster published her last novel in 2016, after an extraordinary career as a novelist and biographer: 25 fiction works and 10 non-fiction, plus an edited selection of poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. When I found her last novel, How to Measure a Cow, on the shelf of throw-outs at our public library, I was intrigued by the title and paid $1 to find out the answer to the conundrum of the title. I was surprised and gripped by the story and the quality of the writing, and perplexed as to why I had never heard of Forster in my studies in English literature or reading over the years. It seemed to me symbolic that her last novel was discarded by the library, and when I checked their catalogue, I found it was the only one of her output listed there. How could a writer of this quality be so forgotten and her works discarded or simply not recognised?

That is the second conundrum. The enigma of the title is the first. I loved the challenge of it. I had never heard of measuring a cow, although my father was a farmer of sheep, not cattle. I do know the answer now, but as to why it is chosen as a title and what it tells us about the story, I suggest you find out for yourself.

Cows are only glimpsed in this story of failed and false identity. It begins, ‘The first day, free.’ She, the anonymous heroine, walks in a public park, where she is approached by a black-clad man who asks her, ‘Are you her?’. She leaves the park and manages to shake him off. He doesn’t reappear in the story, but his question reverberates.

Who, indeed, is she? We learn that she has to assume a new identity, and decides to leave London. Her assumed name is Sarah Smith; her actual name, we learn, is Tara. She jabs a hair clip onto a map of the British Isles and hits on a northern town called Workington, which turns out to be on the edge of the Lakes district. She moves into a little terraced house, drab like all the other houses in the street, and takes a menial job in a factory. Sarah is subdued, meek, wears anonymous grey clothes, ties her hair back in a tight knot, speaks to non-one unless she has to. We don’t learn any details about her past life until late in the story. She remains an enigma, which is brought sharply into focus by the other main persona in the story, her elderly neighbour, Nancy. Nancy, a widow, lives alone and spends a lot of time watching the doorway and window opposite and speculating on this stranger. Gradually, an unlikely friendship forms between the two women, but it is guarded and unequal and fraught with misunderstandings and failed encounters. Nancy, we realise, is an archetypal northerner, a creature of habit, not without compassion, but reserved and slow to trust. When Tara becomes tired of her drab, quiet life and decides to move on and experiment with being more her original self, she visits Nancy and tries to tell her about her past. Nancy resists:

‘I don’t pry,’ Nancy said. ‘I mind my own business.’

Which, of course, she doesn’t. But she finds personal revelations embarrassing and prefers to speculate on what the truth of Nancy’s past might be, rather than hearing the details. Tara confesses that she had, in fact, wanted to be like Nancy… contented, unadventurous, taking pleasure in routine. Nancy responds,

‘…it’s daft — I’ve said it already and I’ll say it again — it’s daft to think you could be like me or anyone like me. Who’d want to be me. You don’t know what goes on in my head. And don’t start — I’m not going to tell you. Now, get up, wash your face, and go for a walk or something. I”m going to club. I’ll see you before you go.’

The answer to the mystery of who the heroine is and why she assumes a false identity remains hidden between the lines until well into the story. As for the reasons why she acted in a way that meant she had to assume a new persona, they are not revealed until near the end of the story. So we, the reader, are only allowed to get to know her gradually and belatedly. And just when she decides to start again, this time in a more real way, to ‘…prove herself as a someone more worth caring about …’ the story ends.

I recommend this book. I promise that, although you may have reservations about the central character and the way the revelations are withheld until the story is almost ended, you will have an adventure along the way.

Meantime, I have ordered a novel of hers, Diary of an Ordinary Woman, and her memoir, Hidden Lives. Both titles resonate with the glimpses I’ve had of her writing and her literary imagination. An enigma waiting to be more fully known.

[Nikki Copleston · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've long been a fan of Margaret Forster. How To Measure A Cow is her last published novel and, drawn by the quirky title and the cover, I eagerly snapped it up. From the start, we know the main character, Tara Fraser, has a dark secret that's forced her to hide, in plain sight, in a place she found (eventually) by jabbing a hair grip into a map. There, assuming a drab, mouse-like persona, she lives as 'Sarah Scott' - but she fails to slip under the radar of Nancy, her inquisitive neighbour, an elderly widow. I couldn't help imagining Patricia Routledge when I thought of Nancy, twitching her curtains and over-thinking the impression she'd make on the mysterious young woman across the street.

I won't give too much away but at the heart of the book is the crime for which Tara has been in prison for ten years. Except, in a sense, the crime ISN'T at the heart of the book, and that's why I found it, overall, rather unsatisfactory. You can't help sympathising with Tara and we see her gradually softening in the course of the story, but she isn't a likeable character. It's hard to justify her crime, and her motivation is ultimately unconvincing. The last quarter of the book feels rushed: we're told why she carried out the crime but there's too little substance on which to base one's own judgement.

Nancy is depicted well, with her petty snobbery and insecurities, but I wonder if the book would have felt more authentic if the other main protagonist had been Claire, one of Tara's friends, rather than Tara herself. Forster's intention may have been to use an unreliable narrator - several times, we're told that Tara is a liar and a fantasist - but Tara doesn't even fulfil that role sufficiently well.

How To Measure A Cow - an arcane skill Nancy acquired during her childhood on a farm - is very readable, but it left me feeling a bit unresolved, dear old Nancy leaving a much greater impression on me, and evoking much more sympathy, than Tara did.

[Anne Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sarah Scott wants to start a new life in a new place so she sticks a pin in a map of the UK and hits Workington, a town in Cumbria. Sarah Scott has a boring job in a factory, lives in a old, run down, shabby house and keeps herself to herself. The only person interested in Sarah Scott is her neighbour across the street, the elderly Mrs Armstrong. It stays Mrs Armstrong until you have passed from acquaintance into the rarified position of friend, then it’s Nancy. Nancy is full of curiosity but that, and all her other emotions, are tamped down to the point where Nancy is a powder keg. Only the red flushing on her face reveals how close to blowing up she is.

So Sarah and Nancy start sharing cups of tea. Eventually Sarah starts to drop hints about her past: that her husband was not a good man; that he’s dead but wasn’t ill; that she’s been out of circulation for a while; that Sarah Scott is not her real name.

I was very intrigued by this book until the end. Revelations came thick and fast but I ended up feeling I didn’t really get a sense of Tara as a person. She presented one picture of herself and her old friends and set Dad presented different versions. I suppose that’s true of all of us but in a relatively short book, it didn’t help. When Sarah decided to have another fresh start back in London, I didn’t understand why she wanted yet another new identity. Also Nancy was just dropped. I’d hoped the unlikely friendship would reveal more what had made Nancy the way she was as well as offering her the chance to change.

[A J HOOPER · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a long time fan of Margaret Forster and have been reading her books for 60 years now. So I'm shocked to discover, on reading the other reviews of this title that most of the reviewers had never heard of her. How sad.
How To Measure a Cow was written in Forster's final years when she was suffering from cancer. Her prose is as lucid as ever; her characters ever subtle. None of them are likeable but this is not a complaint. It's extraordinarily difficult to write unlikeable people.
Tara is living a new life close to the Lake District and pretty soon you discover she has done time for murder. She keeps herself to herself but slowly gets to know her neighbour Nancy who is almost as tight-lipped as Tara is.
I'm not quite sure what Forster was trying to assemble here. Was it about Tara's indomitable spirit? Trouble is her spirit appears to be that of a psychopath. Had Tara really evolved during her year near the Lakes? Or was she fooling herself? Or us?
And why wasn't Nancy the nosy neighbour, made more of? Her own reticence and the unsubtle hints of her acquaintances give the impression Nancy might also be hiding something similar. The novel would have been stronger if this were the case. But Nancy just fades out at the end of the story creating a huge missed opportunity.
So sorry Margaret Forster - not such a good parting shot...but the writer who gave us Have the Men Had Enough? can absolutely be excused. That novel completely changed my attitude towards the old who are becoming gaga. It is quietly brilliant. Farewell to part of my life.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

My considered review of the book:
I raced through the first half and really enjoyed the ever-building tension and the slow-reveal of Sarah and Nancy's characters and tentative relationship. Nancy was my favourite character. I found her incredibly real and could visualise her completely. I would have loved to know more of her back story and I hated the way she was dropped from the story at the end. I sympathised with Sarah at the start because of her loneliness and isolation- I thought the writing really made me feel this. But then she turned into the wicked witch of the west once she decided to be Tara again and I couldn't stand her. Her friends were fairly horrible people, but she just used them. I thought her father was well described and I get that she had wanted love from him and he just never gave it, so was a damaged person, but she had been offered love from her adopted mother, so I think she did have a chance in life. She just wanted to control them both. Her father was unforgivably neglectful about meeting Tom, but I can see that once the wife died, there was no real tie between them, as all Tara felt was anger and resentment.
I don't think hating drugs was enough of a reason for her kill Tom. She could have left him. He wouldn't have stopped her. I'm amazed that none of the professionals noticed that she was a complete psycho and she obviously had very little insight into her own character. I think the ending was a let-down and was very flat. All in all an enjoyable book with a weak ending.

[Lesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was Margaret Forster's last novel before she died, from metatastic disease following cancer of the breast in the 1970's. I have been a long-time admirer of her work, remembering Maudie Tipstaff and Georgie Girl in particular. My mum and I would read out passages from Georgie Girl that made us laugh so much- a classic novel.
This book was a slow- burner. You realise early on that Sarah Scott is an ex-con, wanting to live an anonymous life, a grey life, a structured life. She chooses Workington as a place to hide but she is still so brimming with life, love and passion that she just can't hack it. Her only "friend" at the start is Nancy, a beautifully realised Cumbrian lady who won't have any truck with nonsense, but she is deeply intrigued by her new neighbour. I loved how this old lady was portrayed. The tissues in her handbag, the "sniff" to show disapproval, and the everlasting belief in the benefits of a cup of tea. The friendship is funny, poignant and so relatable to any of us "Southerners" who have been privileged enough to know any of these ladies. Sarah is not a sympathetic heroine, but her mettle has to be admired, and the ending is upbeat. I will miss the writing of this very talented author.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of Margaret Forster's writing, but this novel didn't meet her usual high standard. Having said that, I prefer her non-fiction books. I found How To Measure A Cow unedifying and a little dull. My favourite character was Mrs Armstrong and so much more could have been made of her. I wanted to know her back story, which would have probably been a lot more interesting than the main character, Tara's. I disliked Tara's friends, Liz, Molly and Claire. With friends like those..... I wanted to know a lot more about Tara's husband, Tom. He is a shadowy character in the novel and her motive for killing him seems very slight. It's obvious that this novel was written as Margaret Forster was coming to the end of her life. There is very little energy there and she must have been very ill at the time of writing it. Incredibly sad.