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Liza's England
In Pat Barker's Liza's England , Liza Garrett is the first child in town born in the twentieth century--whose life in many ways mirrors the turmoils of England itself. The tough, severe, but very real and recognizable world of women is put to the most strenuous tests, and Liza, at eighty-four, is proof that loyalty, fortitude and humor survive.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
23 people are currently reading
436 people want to read
About the author
Pat Barker
27 books2,668 followersPat Barker is an English writer known for her fiction exploring themes of memory, trauma, and survival. She gained prominence with Union Street (1982), a stark portrayal of working-class women's lives, and later achieved critical acclaim with the Regeneration Trilogy (1991–1995), a series blending history and fiction to examine the psychological impact of World War I. The final book, The Ghost Road (1995), won the Booker Prize. In recent years, she has turned to retelling classical myths from a female perspective, beginning with The Silence of the Girls (2018). Barker's work is widely recognized for its direct and unflinching storytelling.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews
February 29, 2020
This was originally called The Century’s Daughter, because the main character was born in 1900. Barker wrote this in the 1980s and it is her third novel. Barker’s first three novels can be seen as a trilogy in themselves. They all concern working class women in the north of England and the toughness of their lives. This is about the life of one particular woman, Liza. The themes are familiar for those who know Barker’s work: mental health, the effects of war, family relationships and great structural change.
The novel is set in the 1980s when Liza is living alone (apart from a parrot called Nelson, who has been with her since the local pub closed in the 1960s) and in one room in the downstairs of her house. The houses are being knocked down and she is the only one remaining, all of the rest of the houses in the street are now empty, but Liza is refusing to move. During the novel we see Liza’s life as she looks back. In the present she is visited by Stephen, a social worker and we follow his story a little as well as he tries to come to terms with the local disaffected youth. He is gay and has his own problems to contend with as well. He visits Liza for the first time:
“He saw how time had moulded, almost gouged out, the sockets of her eyes, how two deep lines of force had been cut into the skin between nose and lip, how the hand that came up to grasp the scarlet shawl was brown-speckled, claw-like, but finely made. He saw, too, that her neck was grained with dirt, that there was dirt in the lines of her face, that the scarlet shawl was stained with parrot shit. None of this mattered. Like a rock that wind and sea have worked on since the beginning of time, she needed to apologize for nothing, explain nothing.”
On one occasion Stephen takes her out to look at the local landscape:
“The wind keened across the brown land, and it seemed to Liza that it lamented vanished communities, scattered families, extinguished fires. Mourned the men who’d crowded to the ferry boat, at each and every change of shift, their boots striking sparks from the cobbles as they ran.
She saw her father among them, and his voice echoed down the road that was no longer a road. Ginger-black, afraid of nobody. Men spilling out of the pubs to watch him race”
Barker is very accurate in her descriptions of industrial decline and alienation which marked Thatcher’s Britain. The themes of violence, poverty, class and ambivalent community weave in with the nature of aging. We see Liza throughout her life as a strong woman, but in older age she is still at the mercy of cultural constructions of aged bodies and identities. Liza, who has been strong and vocal throughout her life is becoming silent, invisible and powerless. The powers that be are trying to prove she is “senile” to making moving her easier.
The men in this novel are as powerless as the women, but they express their frustration and find relief in drinking, fighting and fucking.
This is Barker at her sharpest when it comes to telling the story of class and alienation. Liza is a likeable character, with flaws but a good representation of strong working class women in the north of England. Barker is always worth reading!
The novel is set in the 1980s when Liza is living alone (apart from a parrot called Nelson, who has been with her since the local pub closed in the 1960s) and in one room in the downstairs of her house. The houses are being knocked down and she is the only one remaining, all of the rest of the houses in the street are now empty, but Liza is refusing to move. During the novel we see Liza’s life as she looks back. In the present she is visited by Stephen, a social worker and we follow his story a little as well as he tries to come to terms with the local disaffected youth. He is gay and has his own problems to contend with as well. He visits Liza for the first time:
“He saw how time had moulded, almost gouged out, the sockets of her eyes, how two deep lines of force had been cut into the skin between nose and lip, how the hand that came up to grasp the scarlet shawl was brown-speckled, claw-like, but finely made. He saw, too, that her neck was grained with dirt, that there was dirt in the lines of her face, that the scarlet shawl was stained with parrot shit. None of this mattered. Like a rock that wind and sea have worked on since the beginning of time, she needed to apologize for nothing, explain nothing.”
On one occasion Stephen takes her out to look at the local landscape:
“The wind keened across the brown land, and it seemed to Liza that it lamented vanished communities, scattered families, extinguished fires. Mourned the men who’d crowded to the ferry boat, at each and every change of shift, their boots striking sparks from the cobbles as they ran.
She saw her father among them, and his voice echoed down the road that was no longer a road. Ginger-black, afraid of nobody. Men spilling out of the pubs to watch him race”
Barker is very accurate in her descriptions of industrial decline and alienation which marked Thatcher’s Britain. The themes of violence, poverty, class and ambivalent community weave in with the nature of aging. We see Liza throughout her life as a strong woman, but in older age she is still at the mercy of cultural constructions of aged bodies and identities. Liza, who has been strong and vocal throughout her life is becoming silent, invisible and powerless. The powers that be are trying to prove she is “senile” to making moving her easier.
The men in this novel are as powerless as the women, but they express their frustration and find relief in drinking, fighting and fucking.
This is Barker at her sharpest when it comes to telling the story of class and alienation. Liza is a likeable character, with flaws but a good representation of strong working class women in the north of England. Barker is always worth reading!
June 15, 2007
What tipped me over the edge from like to love was this passage:
He'd been a little thin boy with a head too big for his shoulders and sharp, dark eyes, sharp enough to prick. He was always getting left behind. Liza remembered him running down the street after the other boys, calling, "Wait. Wait for me." But they'd never waited. They'd gone off: to the playground, the river, the slag heap, the sea. And he was left to follow....
...[T]he attack that gave him a bullet in his throat had wiped a battalion out. He'd lain for three days in a shell-hole before he managed to crawl back to the British lines and ask for his regiment, only to be told that they were gone. Almost to a man. Gone. And as he was carried to the dressing station behind the lines perhaps he'd said, Wait. Wait for me.
It's haunted me for years.
He'd been a little thin boy with a head too big for his shoulders and sharp, dark eyes, sharp enough to prick. He was always getting left behind. Liza remembered him running down the street after the other boys, calling, "Wait. Wait for me." But they'd never waited. They'd gone off: to the playground, the river, the slag heap, the sea. And he was left to follow....
...[T]he attack that gave him a bullet in his throat had wiped a battalion out. He'd lain for three days in a shell-hole before he managed to crawl back to the British lines and ask for his regiment, only to be told that they were gone. Almost to a man. Gone. And as he was carried to the dressing station behind the lines perhaps he'd said, Wait. Wait for me.
It's haunted me for years.
May 8, 2016
Liza’s England; while it doesn’t quite have the depth or scope of either of Barker’s war trilogies it does concern itself with several of the themes of those novels. The effects of war – mental health and familial relationships, set against a landscape of change; Liza’s England is the story of a woman born on the stroke of midnight at the dawn of the twentieth century.
Walker Street; somewhere in the North East of England, Liza Jarrett is now in her eighties – the same age as the century to the very minute, and she has a fragile newspaper cutting to prove it. She lives in the house she moved to in 1922 with her war damaged, spiritualist husband and young son. Now the houses on the other side of the street have been pulled down, replaced by high rise flats – and now Liza’s side of the street is condemned too. Undaunted Liza intends to remain in the house filled with the voices and memories of her life, despite being the sole remaining inhabitant in a street destined for demolition. Living entirely downstairs as she can no longer manage the stairs – Liza is content with the company of Nelson a parrot she adopted in 1967 when the pub where it lived closed down, and her precious box of mementoes close by. Mrs Jubb – a home help comes in more hours than she is actually paid for, and the three rub along ok in far from ideal conditions.
Full review: https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2016/...
Walker Street; somewhere in the North East of England, Liza Jarrett is now in her eighties – the same age as the century to the very minute, and she has a fragile newspaper cutting to prove it. She lives in the house she moved to in 1922 with her war damaged, spiritualist husband and young son. Now the houses on the other side of the street have been pulled down, replaced by high rise flats – and now Liza’s side of the street is condemned too. Undaunted Liza intends to remain in the house filled with the voices and memories of her life, despite being the sole remaining inhabitant in a street destined for demolition. Living entirely downstairs as she can no longer manage the stairs – Liza is content with the company of Nelson a parrot she adopted in 1967 when the pub where it lived closed down, and her precious box of mementoes close by. Mrs Jubb – a home help comes in more hours than she is actually paid for, and the three rub along ok in far from ideal conditions.
Full review: https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2016/...
July 1, 2010
I was woefully disappointed by this book and I didn't think it was worthy of the author of the Regeneration trilogy. Yes it was readable and, in places, relatively moving. But I felt it lacked the subtlety and authenticity that Barker is obviously capable of - and the fact that Liza's social worker was a gay man seemed more tokenistic than of genuine merit. I felt as though the story was a balled up fist, trying to punch my buttons as hard as it could, rather than gently pulling on the heart strings. And at the end I was very unsure as to the message I was taking from the story and what, if anything, had been resolved.
June 24, 2017
This is an early novel by Pat Barker. Liza was born just after midnight at the very beginning of the 20th Century. She is now in her eighties, the last resident in a street that is slowly crumbling, due for demolition when its final resident consents to move. Stephen is a young social worker who is given the job of persuading her to give up her home, but he knows it will be a near impossible task.
The story leads us through the years of Liza's life, bringing back the many people who have come and gone, while she has seen the century unfurl. Concentrating on the years before World War 2, we see the tough life she has lived, with little money coming into the house both as a child and as a young wife and mother. We also observe Stephen's life, moving into a flat while he awaits the return of his boyfriend from a work trip to America, and visiting his mother and ailing father. As we learn more about the two main characters we see that though they have quite different lives, in the end they experience similar situations, have to deal with heartbreak and disappointment, some moments of pleasure, but mostly just trying to exist in their own ways. The eighties were not a great time, to put it mildly, for many people, especially in northern England, where unemployment was high, and life was often difficult for those who started off with little. Having said that, Liza and Stephen strike up a warm friendship, and although it is not written as plainly as two people sitting with a cup of tea and reminiscing about their lives, it is implied that the stories we read are shared between the two.
There are many female characters in the book that suffer at the hands of men. There are a few sympathetic male characters, but mostly the men are responsible for the aggression and violence that occurs every so often (not to say that characters like Liza's mother cannot be mean and hurtful too). This struck me as a vital comment on the difference between men and women, however much of a generalisation it may be, a willingness to use violence as a means to an end. Some of the men have had the experience of war, and this may have led them to be more careless than they otherwise might have been, but it is one of the sad and depressing truths about people that men are more willing to fight to achieve an outcome.
I read this quite quickly -it is not an overly long book anyway, but that was due to the excellence of the writing, and a bit of time on my hands. The speech is littered with dialectical phrases, some of which might sound unusual to readers not familiar with the north of England, but it is all essential to the story, and gives the characters a real authenticity. This could be a book about people
anywhere, but it is particularly about the area of the country in which it is set. After authors win major prizes (in this case the Booker Prize in 1995 for The Ghost Road), you can read earlier books and wonder why not for that one? I did think that while reading Liza's England, but I guess that is the nature of prizes.
The story leads us through the years of Liza's life, bringing back the many people who have come and gone, while she has seen the century unfurl. Concentrating on the years before World War 2, we see the tough life she has lived, with little money coming into the house both as a child and as a young wife and mother. We also observe Stephen's life, moving into a flat while he awaits the return of his boyfriend from a work trip to America, and visiting his mother and ailing father. As we learn more about the two main characters we see that though they have quite different lives, in the end they experience similar situations, have to deal with heartbreak and disappointment, some moments of pleasure, but mostly just trying to exist in their own ways. The eighties were not a great time, to put it mildly, for many people, especially in northern England, where unemployment was high, and life was often difficult for those who started off with little. Having said that, Liza and Stephen strike up a warm friendship, and although it is not written as plainly as two people sitting with a cup of tea and reminiscing about their lives, it is implied that the stories we read are shared between the two.
There are many female characters in the book that suffer at the hands of men. There are a few sympathetic male characters, but mostly the men are responsible for the aggression and violence that occurs every so often (not to say that characters like Liza's mother cannot be mean and hurtful too). This struck me as a vital comment on the difference between men and women, however much of a generalisation it may be, a willingness to use violence as a means to an end. Some of the men have had the experience of war, and this may have led them to be more careless than they otherwise might have been, but it is one of the sad and depressing truths about people that men are more willing to fight to achieve an outcome.
I read this quite quickly -it is not an overly long book anyway, but that was due to the excellence of the writing, and a bit of time on my hands. The speech is littered with dialectical phrases, some of which might sound unusual to readers not familiar with the north of England, but it is all essential to the story, and gives the characters a real authenticity. This could be a book about people
anywhere, but it is particularly about the area of the country in which it is set. After authors win major prizes (in this case the Booker Prize in 1995 for The Ghost Road), you can read earlier books and wonder why not for that one? I did think that while reading Liza's England, but I guess that is the nature of prizes.
March 1, 2018
Also know as The Century's Daughter, this is a wonderful novel about Liza, born on January 1 1900 and Stephen, a young gay social worker who has become disenchanted with the futility of his work. It's an early novel of Barker's and doesn't have the scope or polish of her astonishing Regeneration Trilogy but many of the themes; mental illness, class, and the ravages of WWI are all here. Happily recommended.
June 12, 2022
I really love Pat Barker's writing. She evokes people and streets, I only remember dimly. A lost world which I saw as an uncomprehending child. A world she paints without glorifying or denigrating, just as it was.
October 29, 2022
Set in northern England, about the life of a woman born at the beginning of the 20th century. Tenacious and strong-willed, despite a lifetime of working-class hardship, Liza doesn't want to leave a house she has lived in since 1922. Her life is described in flashbacks.
Especially disturbing is the overbearing behavior of the community's menfolk, unenlightened child rearing practices and the teen delinquency.
The most uplifting part of Liza's life is her "spunky" personality; being a women for whom, in older age, life is worth living for the sake of living (after realizing that she has spent the better part of the last half century with many onerous family responsibilities).
Although repetitious, I liked this book because the timeline is the same as my own English family - - also reminds me of Pat Barker's prior books "Union Street" and "Blow Your House Down".
Louise (Liza's mother) was one of the last generation in England to experience the dire consequences of inadequate family planning and health care (15 children - 9 surviving).
Liza (2nd generation - same generation as my grandmothers, b.1885/1906) lives through some of the positive changes taking place in the country but remains firmly on the margins.
Liza's husband (Frank) seems to suffering from WW1 PTSD and the consequent effects are devastating for his family (Liza and their two children - Tom and Eileen).
The effects of WW2 are felt deeply; the loss of soldier sons and relatives is echoed in the community slum clearance.
By the fourth generation, some of the children are beginning to take advantage of the educational opportunities (Kath) available to the generation affected by the decline of industrial Britain.
Although Margaret Thatcher is maligned, one can despair at the lack of self-responsibility that is often portrayed in these working-class communities; but at least there are signs of an improvement in the quality of life - healthcare, education, council housing, child allowances and many other social benefits.
The book would have benefited from more social, historical and town planning information being weaved into the narrative. Why weren't the council housing estates laid out more effectively and when the did the steel mill close? How did people get access to terraced housing and who owned the properties?
Next book is: Pat Barker's "The Man Who Wasn't There" (1988) - just ordered it.
Especially disturbing is the overbearing behavior of the community's menfolk, unenlightened child rearing practices and the teen delinquency.
The most uplifting part of Liza's life is her "spunky" personality; being a women for whom, in older age, life is worth living for the sake of living (after realizing that she has spent the better part of the last half century with many onerous family responsibilities).
Although repetitious, I liked this book because the timeline is the same as my own English family - - also reminds me of Pat Barker's prior books "Union Street" and "Blow Your House Down".
Louise (Liza's mother) was one of the last generation in England to experience the dire consequences of inadequate family planning and health care (15 children - 9 surviving).
Liza (2nd generation - same generation as my grandmothers, b.1885/1906) lives through some of the positive changes taking place in the country but remains firmly on the margins.
Liza's husband (Frank) seems to suffering from WW1 PTSD and the consequent effects are devastating for his family (Liza and their two children - Tom and Eileen).
The effects of WW2 are felt deeply; the loss of soldier sons and relatives is echoed in the community slum clearance.
By the fourth generation, some of the children are beginning to take advantage of the educational opportunities (Kath) available to the generation affected by the decline of industrial Britain.
Although Margaret Thatcher is maligned, one can despair at the lack of self-responsibility that is often portrayed in these working-class communities; but at least there are signs of an improvement in the quality of life - healthcare, education, council housing, child allowances and many other social benefits.
The book would have benefited from more social, historical and town planning information being weaved into the narrative. Why weren't the council housing estates laid out more effectively and when the did the steel mill close? How did people get access to terraced housing and who owned the properties?
Next book is: Pat Barker's "The Man Who Wasn't There" (1988) - just ordered it.
August 3, 2017
I think this is a book which would stand reading again because it is eighty four years of life densely packed with many fully formed characters. History is side by side with the eighties (also history now) and though the past was hard and heart breaking the verdict seems to be that in Thatcher's Britain greed is all that counts and the old solidarity is gone. The old houses are knocked down and the flats that replace them are poorly built and have no sense of community. Industry is dying and a generation is left adrift and aimless.
Pat Barker doesn't sentimentalise the past but her view of the eighties is bleak. Plus ça change...
Pat Barker doesn't sentimentalise the past but her view of the eighties is bleak. Plus ça change...
March 11, 2015
Nowhere near as polished as Pat Barker's wonderful 'Regeneration' trilogy or 'Life Class' and 'Toby's Room', but this early novel is still worth a read. Tells parallel stories of Liza, born on the stroke of midnight 1900 and her social worker, Stephen in the 1980s. Liza is part of a northern working class community and experiences everything that 2 world wars and The Depression threw at such people. And yet, the modern day personal and social issues which Stephen has to deal with, drive him to Liza for comfort and support. Not as depressing as it sounds; honest!
July 21, 2013
Verrassend goed! En dat komt vooral door het gewèldige hoofdpersonage. Dochter van de eeuw (geboren in de eerste seconden van de nieuwe, twintigste eeuw)Liza, is een sterke vrouw die niet bepaald een gemakkelijk leven heeft gehad.
Het boek geeft ook een levendig beeld van hoe het voor de gewone mensen was om op te groeien en te leven in een omgeving en een tijd van oorlogen en grote werkeloosheid.
Met plezier gelezen.
Het boek geeft ook een levendig beeld van hoe het voor de gewone mensen was om op te groeien en te leven in een omgeving en een tijd van oorlogen en grote werkeloosheid.
Met plezier gelezen.
May 7, 2017
I am a fan of Pat Barker's writing, I have read most of her stuff, especially the trilogy about WW1.
Although Liza's story is a bit bleak in parts, Barker's characters are true to life especially the women.
The depiction of the hard life especially of the women in the era of the dying industries of the North is gritty and grim.
This is a book that you think about even after you've finished it.
Although Liza's story is a bit bleak in parts, Barker's characters are true to life especially the women.
The depiction of the hard life especially of the women in the era of the dying industries of the North is gritty and grim.
This is a book that you think about even after you've finished it.
September 6, 2019
Depressing.
June 15, 2020
Stephen is a social worker, troubled by the youths down at what passes for the local centre, and also by his parents who are uncomfortable with (or in his mother’s case unaware of) his homosexuality. He is assigned to Liza Jarrett, an old woman living with a parrott called Nelson (whom she inherited from a pub landlord when the pub closed down) in a terraced house scheduled for demolition but which she is unwilling to give up. Liza was born on the stroke of midnight at 1899’s turn into 1900 and dubbed ‘Daughter of the Century’ by the local newspaper, a clipping of which her father was very proud. This made her one of that generation who lost brothers in one war and sons in the next. The novel is, though, more a tale of female resilience in and around that century’s defining landmarks (which it deals with only tangentially, even if their repercussions impact mightily on Liza’s life.) It intersperses Liza’s memories with Stephen’s experiences in the present as he comes to appreciate her and her determination to make the best of things, to fend for herself, to depend on nobody, and, with its present being the 1980s, illuminates the passing of a sense of community, of worth, “‘that’s where it all went wrong you know. It was all money. You’d’ve thought we had nowt else to offer. But we did. We had a way of life, a way of treating people.’”
There is some ground here to which Barker would return in her Regeneration trilogy (in particular the Great War and its munitions workers known as canaries.) While it tends to the bleak there are some moments of wry humour. At Stephen’s dad’s funeral, “‘It’s like a wedding in there,’ Stephen said. ‘No it isn’t,’ said Christine. Weddings aren’t that cheerful.’”
This was Barker’s third novel and while the characterisation is good her writing had not quite yet attained the maturity it would display later. The story is engaging though and Liza’s life reflects the stoicism of the women of her generation and class not often exhibited in fiction with the novel overall a threnody for a lost solidarity.
There is some ground here to which Barker would return in her Regeneration trilogy (in particular the Great War and its munitions workers known as canaries.) While it tends to the bleak there are some moments of wry humour. At Stephen’s dad’s funeral, “‘It’s like a wedding in there,’ Stephen said. ‘No it isn’t,’ said Christine. Weddings aren’t that cheerful.’”
This was Barker’s third novel and while the characterisation is good her writing had not quite yet attained the maturity it would display later. The story is engaging though and Liza’s life reflects the stoicism of the women of her generation and class not often exhibited in fiction with the novel overall a threnody for a lost solidarity.
March 18, 2017
Pat Barker is one of my favourite. authors. She's a historian and writes in a realistic way about the early part of 20th century, particularly about the after effects of the First World War. The Regeneration Trilogy and other books with the same characters - Art Class and Toby's War - follow the fortunes and misfortunes of a group of friends who studied together. I read these books first and was hooked.
Liza's England tells the story of a woman born at the beginning of the century, now in her eighties and that of a young man, Stephen, who has the unenviable task of telling her that the house where she has lived for years is due to be demolished. She will be rehoused, but she doesn't want to move. The point of view shifts between Liza and Stephen as she looks back on her life and Stephen thinks about his future. A bond of affection and respect grows between this resilient old woman and the ensitve, caring young man.
What interested me most was the development of this relationship but I was also drawn into the story by Liza's complete acceptance of her role in iife. Daughter, wife, mother, carer. She doesn't question these traditional female roles, just lives them. Despite her feckless husbnad, Liza does her best to bring up her children on very little money. After her husband has gone, she earns the necessary money to feed her children any way she can, often by hard labour, such as scavenging for coal. She takes in her ailing mother and looks after her even though her mother admits she's never loved her. She'd only ever wanted boys. Her cantankerous mother had had a hard life too, having fifiteen children with only nine surviving. Their lives are shown without sentimentality. in a matter-of-fact way. For them it's the norm.
I couldn't help thinking what a contrast Liza's attitude to life is to modern women's expectations and aspirations. This novel, without preaching or complaining, reminds us how even the lives of the most underprivileged women in our society have changed. But I couldn't help wondering if the feisty spirit of the Liza's of this world has been lost in the change?
Liza's England tells the story of a woman born at the beginning of the century, now in her eighties and that of a young man, Stephen, who has the unenviable task of telling her that the house where she has lived for years is due to be demolished. She will be rehoused, but she doesn't want to move. The point of view shifts between Liza and Stephen as she looks back on her life and Stephen thinks about his future. A bond of affection and respect grows between this resilient old woman and the ensitve, caring young man.
What interested me most was the development of this relationship but I was also drawn into the story by Liza's complete acceptance of her role in iife. Daughter, wife, mother, carer. She doesn't question these traditional female roles, just lives them. Despite her feckless husbnad, Liza does her best to bring up her children on very little money. After her husband has gone, she earns the necessary money to feed her children any way she can, often by hard labour, such as scavenging for coal. She takes in her ailing mother and looks after her even though her mother admits she's never loved her. She'd only ever wanted boys. Her cantankerous mother had had a hard life too, having fifiteen children with only nine surviving. Their lives are shown without sentimentality. in a matter-of-fact way. For them it's the norm.
I couldn't help thinking what a contrast Liza's attitude to life is to modern women's expectations and aspirations. This novel, without preaching or complaining, reminds us how even the lives of the most underprivileged women in our society have changed. But I couldn't help wondering if the feisty spirit of the Liza's of this world has been lost in the change?
December 15, 2025
Having enjoyed the Regeneration trilogy and Toby’s Room, I was curious to read one of Pat Barker’s earlier novels. This third novel explores many of the same themes as the rest of her work, and revels in 20th century history and the lives of working class women. The character of Stephen, the contemporaneous social worker, is also interesting and well-drawn, and I read this book in two sittings, staying curious about the characters of Liza and Stephen though to the end.
Originally published by Virago during the Thatcher era, the novel portrays a de-industrialized England where homes are being destroyed and high-rises are being built, where people are losing hope and their traditional values and social ties. It’s interesting to reflect on that era now and consider how it might be written about differently in light of subsequent developments.
I give it 3.5 stars, would give it 4 or 4.5, but there were some really strange editorial choices that I let bumping up against as I read. The prose tends to be too on-the-nose in places. It tells instead of shows or rather, it shows, then at the end of the paragraph it also tells you for good measure. Pat Barker is obviously a good writer and she went on to conform more to the demands of literary prose in her later work, so I can’t for the life of me figure out why she or her editor decided to tell the story in this way. However, if you can get past the instances of this, it’s a good read that tells a good story that will be of interest to anyone who enjoyed her later novels.
Originally published by Virago during the Thatcher era, the novel portrays a de-industrialized England where homes are being destroyed and high-rises are being built, where people are losing hope and their traditional values and social ties. It’s interesting to reflect on that era now and consider how it might be written about differently in light of subsequent developments.
I give it 3.5 stars, would give it 4 or 4.5, but there were some really strange editorial choices that I let bumping up against as I read. The prose tends to be too on-the-nose in places. It tells instead of shows or rather, it shows, then at the end of the paragraph it also tells you for good measure. Pat Barker is obviously a good writer and she went on to conform more to the demands of literary prose in her later work, so I can’t for the life of me figure out why she or her editor decided to tell the story in this way. However, if you can get past the instances of this, it’s a good read that tells a good story that will be of interest to anyone who enjoyed her later novels.
April 26, 2019
I've never read any of Pat Barker's books but heard her on Start the Week one week and determined to read one. This came up on a Kindle Daily Deal so I went for it and I was pleased that I had.
The book was immediately engaging and clever how the key elements of the story and characters are introduced over the first few pages. Liza was born as the 20th century dawned (and one title for the book is "The Century's Daughter") and we meet her in the 1980s as she looks back on her life and how wars and economic change have affected her and her community on Teeside. It is quite interesting to watch the portrayal of the 1980s, which are already over 30 years in my past. I wonder how much the 1980s' views influence the opinions put into the mouths of characters in the past, e.g. a labour councillor's views on the high rise flats then being built.
Liza's is a long and varied life and there is plenty of misery in the book. However, in the part where we are seeing her memories of the past, the book comes alive and are quite vivid. I think in my present mood I could have done with a happier ending but it was nonetheless a good book.
The book was immediately engaging and clever how the key elements of the story and characters are introduced over the first few pages. Liza was born as the 20th century dawned (and one title for the book is "The Century's Daughter") and we meet her in the 1980s as she looks back on her life and how wars and economic change have affected her and her community on Teeside. It is quite interesting to watch the portrayal of the 1980s, which are already over 30 years in my past. I wonder how much the 1980s' views influence the opinions put into the mouths of characters in the past, e.g. a labour councillor's views on the high rise flats then being built.
Liza's is a long and varied life and there is plenty of misery in the book. However, in the part where we are seeing her memories of the past, the book comes alive and are quite vivid. I think in my present mood I could have done with a happier ending but it was nonetheless a good book.
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September 13, 2021He'd been a little thin boy with a head too big for his shoulders and sharp, dark eyes, sharp enough to prick. He was always getting left behind. Liza remembered him running down the street after the other boys, calling, "Wait. Wait for me." But they'd never waited. They'd gone off: to the playground, the river, the slag heap, the sea. And he was left to follow. [...] [T]he attack that gave him a bullet in his throat had wiped a battalion out. He'd lain for three days in a shell-hole before he managed to crawl back to the British lines and ask for his regiment, only to be told that they were gone. Almost to a man. Gone. And as he was carried to the dressing station behind the lines perhaps he'd said, Wait. Wait for me.
January 19, 2025
A very engaging story about Liza who was born on the stroke of midnight on 01/01/1900 and her young social carer Stephen, set in 1984 in the North East of England. It tells the story of a century and Liza's life through two wars and bringing up her children and granddaughter - life in North East was hard, even more when the steel works closed leaving men out of work and people in poverty. Yet, somehow the women held it all together and through hard graft survived. Now 84, Liza's street is being demolished and through Stephen's eyes we see how the younger generation try to survive in pretty bleak circumstances too.
Yet, the novel is also full of humour, friendship, love and in the end despite all life affirming.
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Yet, the novel is also full of humour, friendship, love and in the end despite all life affirming.
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October 20, 2017
This book tells the story of Liza born at midnight at the beginning of the twentieth century. Her family lives in harsh working class north and some of the social truths are brutal. Some fabulous descriptions and family interactions. It ties in with the life of Stephen, a sort of social worker with the task of trying to move Liza from the last house standing in her street. The contrast between the life Liza led and Stephen's life today is quite stark and yet the two have things in common.
Well written with great descriptions. I should have liked to know what happened to Kath at the end however.
Well written with great descriptions. I should have liked to know what happened to Kath at the end however.
January 30, 2020
Not exactly an uplifting read, but totally absorbing. This novel kept me company over a couple of bouts of insomnia and I finished it within 48 hours. Pat Barker's beautiful writing makes for effortless reading. Her characters are thoroughly grounded in reality and she doesn't shy away from the messiness and desperation life sometimes throws at us. Liza is an engaging and feisty character. The women in the book are mostly strong and unbreakable, unlike many of the male characters. Stephen, the gay young man who befriends her, is strong in a different sort of way and his compassion for his fellow human beings, a rarity. Their tender relationship is a joy to behold.
January 19, 2020
It's the mid 80's (I think). Liza (84) needs to be decanted so her home can be demolished but she's holding out- this book tells of her life and the the impact of both World Wars on it through her Mum, Dad, brothers, sisters and grandchildren. Her story has parallels to Stephen's - her social worker. They enjoy each other's company.
I enjoyed this less than some other of Barker's books- but then this may be as it was one of her earliest one's?
I enjoyed this less than some other of Barker's books- but then this may be as it was one of her earliest one's?
January 12, 2022
Another wonderful piece of writing and only her 3rd novel. How does Pat Barker do it ? Effortlessly she seems to be able to totally emesh one in the world and life of her characters. Some gruesome images of war and physical suffering interspersed by very realistic scenes of womens' domestic drudgery, and hopeless husbands as Liza's story unfolds. It is also the story of a neighbourhood in industrial England and the despair of poverty.
October 26, 2017
This is powerfully grim, a real working class tale, but engrossing too.
March 16, 2018
There are elements of this story that remind me of the first season of “Call the Midwife” — the setting, the general time period, the poverty. The writing is vivid, but the images aren’t pleasant.
April 28, 2019
An early novel but a great story covering a North East woman's story through the 20th C. Brilliant prose and worth a read
October 4, 2019
Haunting and frank as Barker always is. The relationship between the two central characters becomes a window into each of their lives as they become closer.
September 28, 2020
Grim, almost beyond bearing.
September 4, 2021
Loved this book. So many themes that reminiscent of the Regeneration Trilogy that came after it. Written with so much compassion
July 23, 2022
An interesting account of a hard life lived in the fist 81/2 decades of the twentieth century.
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