Westwood

by Stella Gibbons, Philippe Giraudon (Translator)

Réservée et sensible, Margaret n’est pas une séductrice née. À l’inverse, son amie Hilda multiplie les prétendants. Dans le Londres de l’après-Blitz, le célèbre dramaturge Gerard Challis entre par hasard dans la vie des deux jeunes femmes. Margaret lui voue une admiration sans bornes et ne rêve que de découvrir Westwood, sa somptueuse demeure. Challis, lui, poursuit Hilda de ses assiduités…


Née à Londres en 1902 et décédée en 1989, Stella Gibbons a débuté sa carrière comme journaliste. Poétesse et romancière, elle est lauréate du prix Femina-Vie Heureuse en 1934. Le Bois du rossignol est disponible en Points.


« Succombez à l’humour corrosif de Stella Gibbons et au charme so british de personnages merveilleusement campés. »

The Observer

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Historical Fiction, British Literature, London, World War II, Modern Classics

528 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1946

About the author

Stella Dorothea Gibbons was an English novelist, journalist, poet and short-story writer.

Her first novel, Cold Comfort Farm, won the Femina Vie Heureuse Prize for 1933. A satire and parody of the pessimistic ruralism of Thomas Hardy, his followers and especially Precious Bain by Mary Webb -the "loam and lovechild" genre, as some called it, Cold Comfort Farm introduces a self-confident young woman, quite self-consciously modern, pragmatic and optimistic, into the grim, fate-bound and dark rural scene those novelists tended to portray.

Reviews

[Petra X · Rating 1 out of 5]

If Cold Comfort Farm was a high point of a peculiar kind of class-based English humour, then this is the low-point of an author who hits you on the head with her absolutely humourless opinions on class, beauty and stupid women. This is so bad it leaves you wondering how anyone this awful actually had it in them to write a masterpiece.

The only thing that stuck with me was Lady Pronounces-on-Everything saying to the extremely good, extremely plain and unbelievably stupid heroine that (because of her unfortunate looks) she might never get married and might have to do the most difficult thing on earth - learn to live without love.

Oh dear.
This review aims to be really helpful and save you time, money and tedium. I wish I hadn't had to go through it.

[JimZ · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a good read! I was not expecting it to be as good as it was because at the beginning I was bored. But then it picked up, and I became engrossed in the characters, and I was a happy camper after finishing it. 4 stars 🙂 🙃 🙂 🙃 🙂 🙃

I read from an apparent first edition that was published in 1946. In one of the front pages, it was stated that the book was produced “in complete conformity with the authorized economy standards”. In one of the back pages after the novel’s end, her other books were listed with the caveat “A number of the above titles may be unobtainable under present conditions” ...the present conditions being England just emerging after World War II.

The time period for the novel was circa 1945 —people were using ration books, there were air raids, men were still going off to war. Westwood refers to a country house in England in which a playwright in his 50s, Gerard Challis and his wife Seraphina, reside. Their daughter, Hebe Niland, and her children are living with them for a good part of the novel. The central protagonist is Margaret Steggles, a ’plain Jane’ 22- year-old living with her parents who teaches at a private school in London. Her best fried is Hilda, who sometimes doesn’t understand Margaret and her high-falutin ways, and is a very down-to-earth creature. I liked her the most in the novel. Margaret by happenstance meets Gerard Challis, and secretly loves him, but unbeknownst to her, Mr. Challis by happenstance meets Hilda, and is physically attracted to her and wants her to be his mistress (unbeknownst to Hilda).

The book has a minor character, Linda, a girl (I think 12 years old) who has a developmental/intellectual disability. It is interesting in a bad/sad sort of way how Gibbons writes about her and most people’s reactions to Linda. People who haven’t even met Linda when finding out she is intellectually disabled have a negative reaction to her. It made me feel bad, but Gibbons didn’t sugar coat things.

The writer, playwright Arnold Schnitzler, is mentioned in the novel. I read his “Lieutenant Gustl’ a while back and loved it.

Reviews:
• In the edition I read from, there was a bonus for me — a review of the book from The Guardian. Nicely written review by Lynne Truss (she wrote the Introduction for the re-issue by Vintage Classics).
• very thoughtful review... https://reading19001950.wordpress.com...
• https://bookssnob.wordpress.com/2014/...
• https://www.stuckinabook.com/westwood...
• this person didn’t like it!. . https://thebookloversboudoir.wordpres...
• https://booksplease.org/2011/11/23/we...

[Beth Bonini · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the summer lasted, the beauty was stronger than the sadness, because the sun blessed everything - the ruins, the tired faces of the people, the tall wild flowers and the dark stagnant water - and, during those months of calm, London in ruin was beautiful as a city in a dream.

"I've just an unhappy nature, I think. I take everything so seriously, and I mind it so much when things are ugly, and I worry about the mess the world's in, and the war."

Westwood is the coming-of-age story of 23 year old Margaret Steggles - rather too appropriately called 'Struggles' by one of the other characters - during the last year of World War II. When the story begins, Margaret is exploring Hampstead Heath and the village of Highgate on a romantically atmospheric summer evening before segueing to her torch-lit inspection of a small house with falling-down bits of plaster. Margaret's family is preparing to move to London after some years in a dull and provincial Bedfordshire town, and Margaret is beginning her first job as a teacher at the Anna Bonner School for Girls.

Margaret's sensitivity to natural beauty immediately impresses itself on the reader; and in a conversation with Hilda, an old school friend, we learn that Margaret is also passionately fond of poetry and music. Despite being plain, and having a rather stolid, serious nature, Margaret is seriously susceptible to beauty and this tendency towards romanticism will clash with the more sensible and pragmatic side of her nature throughout this book. Hilda proves to be an excellent foil for Margaret, both in looks and temperament. Although Hilda has the delicate and pretty blondness that makes her a favourite with men, she is remarkably down-to-earth and completely dismissive of any excess of emotion or poetic sensibility. Hilda gets nearly all of the comic lines in the book, and although I suspect that Stella Gibbons may have slightly more of the 'Margaret' in her, she is well aware that there is a fine line between being alive to the beauties of the world and a necessary pragmatism and stringent honesty about the true nature of things. The entirely unsentimental accuracy of Gibbon's characterisations makes it clear that she reserves her romanticism for the landscape.

Early in the story, through the device of a lost ration card, Margaret is drawn into the lives of an alluring and artistic family. The elder branch of the family - Gerald Challis, a distinguished playwright, and his wife Seraphina - live in a rather grand house called Westwood in the village of Highgate, very near to Margaret's new home. The younger branch - artist Alex Niland, his wife Hebe (daughter to the Challises) and their three children - are the means through which Margaret becomes attached to her fantasy crush on Gerald Challis. Margaret's own home life is unhappy, and when she falls in love with Mr. Challis she has really fallen for the whole set-up: not least, the gracious house itself.

It was interesting to read a book in which World War II is the backdrop but not really the 'story' itself. Although many aspects of the war colour the plot, and nearly all of the male characters are involved in the war in some way - whether by working in the Ministry, or being engaged in active duty, or having been invalided out - the story is really about how ordinary people are living their lives despite the war. There are many references to blackout curtains, sweet rations, and even the occasional bomb, and yet the war - after more than 5 years - has become a commonplace to the characters. Even the character of Zita - a German Jewish refugee who works in the Challis home and becomes friends with Margaret - has a life made up of concert going and boyfriends, not to mention domestic work, despite occasional hints of the tragedy she has left behind in Germany.

In many ways, this is a story of innocence and experience - a theme which always resonates with me. One of my favourite scenes in the novel takes place when Margaret and Mr. Challis are thrown together in a journey through the countryside. She admires the simple beauty of the meadows, awash in buttercups, while he has nothing but a dismissive contempt for the view. Finally, she is bold enough to challenge his beliefs and values:

'No one should accept a second-best in beauty.'
"But some people have to, Mr Challis!'
He only shook his head, studying her flushed cheeks and over-bright eyes. 'Never, my child.'
'Then if one cannot have the very best, shouldn't one have anything at all? she asked, in a tone so despairing that it amused him and he gave a quite good-natured laugh, but all the same he answered firmly:
'No - nothing. In beauty, in art, in love, in spiritual integrity - the highest and best - or nothing!'
'That makes it very hard for some people,' she said at last in a low tone.'

Love and romance are leitmotifs throughout the book, but if anything this story has a highly unromantic view of love - and particularly of marriage. One of my favourite descriptions of the disappointment of marriage is this sketch of the Challis union:

Mr Challis, who had been married for twenty-five years, was again silent. He was fond of his wife, though he had long ago decided that her nymph's face had led him up a garden path where the flowers were not spiritual enough for his taste, and he deplored her frivolity.

Being the 'high-minded' sort, Mr Challis creates the perfect tragic heroines for his plays and has a series of affairs with much younger women. Happily for them, the women in his life are under no illusion about the defects in his nature and only the innocent Margaret really idolises him in any way.

In a sense, there is some pressure on Margaret to think about marriage; women like Margaret's mother can see no alternative for women, even though her own marriage is lonely and disappointing. At several points in the book, Margaret thinks a man might be interested in her but it all comes to nothing. Yet even in her keenest disappointments, Margaret is self-aware enough to realise that her heart has not been truly touched.

It was only when I finished the book that I noticed it had a subtitle: The Gentle Powers. At the very end of the book, a wise older woman advises Margaret that she has a character which will always crave "the gentle powers" (defined as Beauty, and Time, and the Past and Pity. Laughter, too). So many of the incidents in the book, taken from a year in Margaret's life, emphasise one of those powers. It's a wonderful summing-up, and it also explains why I felt a particular kinship with this book. Like Margaret, and author Stella Gibbons, I am also extremely susceptible to the beauties of Hampstead and Highgate.

Each village upon its hill is marked by a church spire, and both are landmarks for miles. Both villages are romantic and charming, with narrow hilly streets and little two-hundred-year-old houses, and here and there a great mansion of William and Mary's or James the First's reign, such as Fenton House in Hampstead and Cromwell House in Highgate; but their chief charm dwells in their cold air, which seems perpetually scented with April, and in the glimpses at the end of their steep alleys of some massive elm or oak, with beyond its branches that abrupt drop into the complex smoky pattern (formed by a thousand shades of grey in winter and of delicate cream and smoke-blue in summer) of London.

[Marisol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Westwood simboliza un anhelo, una ilusión, algo que se visualiza como un sueño muy lejano y que parece inalcanzable, casi como un oasis en el desierto que al final resulta ser un espejismo.

Una caminata en la oscuridad y el descubrimiento de una tarjeta de racionamiento en la calle, son el pretexto para que nuestra protagonista Margaret descubra Westwood y se vuelva la razón de su existencia, una chica con unos padres ensimismados e infelices y que ve ante si una vida gris y solitaria, pocas perspectivas de casarse, debido a su timidez y falta de atractivo encuentra en Westwood un motivo para soñar y vivir.

Aunque Westwood es esquivo con Margaret, le enseña las entrañas de una existencia aparentemente regalada y feliz pero lo hace de una manera mordaz, como si existiera un vidrio que permite la visión pero no el involucramiento, relegándola a ser una espectadora sin posibilidad de otra alternativa.

Es una historia muy bien contada que de algún modo refleja una forma de vida moldeada por los cambios que la guerra ha traído, mujeres trabajadoras, crisis económica y líneas difuminadas entre las clases sociales, cuestiones que la sociedad británica debe aceptar y convivir con el hecho de que están ante una nueva realidad, aunque la resistencia al cambio sea parte del proceso.

[Philip Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stella Gibbons is now really only known for one novel - her first, Cold Comfort Farm. It would be easy to dismiss her as a one hit wonder, but she actually wrote over 20 books, and Westwood, published in 1946 was largely believed to be Gibbons' own personal favourite. I've left it a couple of days since finishing this novel before writing a review, as I initially didn't know what to make of it. Margaret, a young school teacher moves to London with her parents during the war years. The novel tells the story of her meeting with Gerard Challis, a renowned playwright who happens, in a separate plot thread, to have developed a passion for Margaret's friend Hilda, although neither woman is aware of the other's involvement with Challis. Thus develops a gentle comedy of errors and manners.
The fundamental problem with the novel is that Gibbons has filled it so full with oddities and grotesques, that's it's difficult to identify or sympathize with any individual character. Margaret, the ostensible heroine is very hard to like at times, as she allows herself to be used and abused by the monstrous Challis family for the perceived honour of being close to them, and part of their intimate circle. Additionally, for a novel with is so definitely set during the war years in London, it seems strange that the war is mentioned so infrequently, and none of the characters seem particularly touched by the larger events occurring at the time (although Margaret does have a brother who is enlisted and called up during the book).
However, in spite of these criticisms, it is a warm and witty novel which I am growing much fonder of in hindsight - Gibbons is a very honest writer, and she doesn't cheat her readership with unrealistic conclusions. There are wonderful descriptive passages concerning the borough of Highgate, and the changing seasons are well evoked. It's a shame that Gibbons has seemingly fallen out of favour with publishers for so long, but this novel (along with a few others) have been reprinted by Vintage, so maybe the time is right for a revival of interest in this little known author.

[Lady Drinkwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was surprised to read a couple of negative reviews of this book as I absolutely loved it, although its 30 years since I read Cold Comfort Farm so in that respect I can't make a comparison. There are wonderful social observations and some very funny passages. I disagree with some reviews on amazon that all of the characters are unsympathetic. They all have their unattractive sides, which the author makes a point of showing us, but that unfortunately is humam nature. The central character also changes throughout the book and is much more of a complete person by the end. There is a also a real wise woman in the character of Lady Challis. I think the introduciton of the Downes Syndrome child was actually quite innovative for the time and as the narrator seems to education her to a certain extent the author may well have been making a point through this. The only thing that did jar slightly with me was the way the foreign accents were written but overall this book was a joy to read.

[Daisy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’d like to think that my own life is so jam-packed full of excitement and drama that my entertainment comes from reading long family sagas where nothing much happens. I’m not sure that is the reason but whatever it is, my favourite reads are those that, like a fly-on-the-wall documentary follow a family (or character) for a few months in their lives.

In Westwood we live alongside Margaret Steggles for the best part of a year during the latter stages of World War II. An intelligent though plain young schoolteacher we watch her learn why the cliché about never meeting your heroes is a cliché for a reason and more painfully that being intelligent and earnest will never win a man’s affections in the way a pretty face will,

“She had yet to learn the plain woman’s lesson; that a pretty woman will always make men lose their dignity willingly and with pleasure.”

Sadly for Margaret she is surrounded by pretty women – her best friend Hilda in particular – who inspire devotion from men despite treating them with a large dose of disdain while Margaret is kind, generous and intellectual and perpetually passed over. It would be easy, and wrong to see Margaret as a victim to be pitied however. Gibbons makes it clear that Margaret makes fully informed choices. For example she knows that the German housekeeper she befriends is quite controlling, somewhat selfish and prone to sulking, in fact Margaret is quite honest about not liking her very much and finding being with her draining but she maintains the friendship in order to be a part of the prestigious household her friend works for. She is aware of her own failings, namely her inability to say no, to put her own needs first often agreeing to do things she knows amounts to her being taken advantage of, so should we feel sorry for her? I think this is the joy of this book, there is no judgment, no victims or villains just an adult way of looking at individuals’ behaviour and allowing them to be accountable for their actions.

Similarly the fact all this happens during a war is neither here nor there. There are references to characters having to take cover in shelters at the air raid sirens, a couple of American GIs make the character list but the novel doesn’t dwell on the horrors or the psychological impact of it as books of today love to do. More disconcerting than characters having to use flashlights to get home during the blackouts was the depiction of Hampstead being a place where working class families could afford to live in a house backing onto the heath whereas anyone familiar with London knows today it is the sole preserve of those who have made millions .

I loved this book, I loved each and every character no matter how flawed and I loved Margaret despite wanting to shake her as often as hug her. Its brilliance is evident on every page and I am at a loss to explain how this Gibbons offering has been so totally eclipsed by her most famous book Cold Comfort Farm.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cold Comfort Farm is one of my most-reread books, but Westwood was Stella Gibbons' own favourite among her novels. It's darker and more pointedly feminist, set in wartime proper rather than a fictionalised near-future 1940s and provides a fascinating minor-key mirror to CCF. Margaret is almost an anti-Flora Poste, the outsider drawn in not to sort everyone out but to be dazzled and tossed about and frankly exploited (echoes of Flora in the magnificently impervious Hilda and fundamentally frivolous flapper Seraphina too). And the insufferably pretentious misogynistic playwright Challis (Mybug gets bumped to major character!) provides Gibbons opportunity for much delicious stabbiness:

"He knew that his plays were good; each one better than its predecessor. Mountain Air, the one about six women botanists and a male guide isolated in a snowstorm in a hut on the Andes had been surer in its approach and handling than his first one, The Hidden Well, which concerned the seven men and one female nurse on the tsetse-fly research station... while Kattë dealt with an Austrian woman who was bandied about by the officers of a crack regiment in Vienna, and was, he felt convinced, his masterpiece."

"He had wrought for himself a strikingly distinguished style. It was difficult to describe, but he himself had not demurred when one admirer had coined for it the phrase 'a style of iron and shadows.' ....He always wrote obliquely of people's personal charms, making a man say to a woman, 'Your throat is a taut chord,' or 'Your ankle bone is softly moulded.'"

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, it tells the story of two friends, Margaret and Hilda, and of their lives and those people who they meet during the Second World War. However it is not a blow by blow account of life day to day more about the interactions between people and how those relationships go on to either mean something or do not.

This book was written after the war in the mid 1940's and that is reflected in the style of writing. Margaret is an interesting character who does tend to dissect her social interactions long after they have happened. Hilda however is very easy going and light hearted. During the story they both meet the same person but each have a very different relationship with him, both wanting from him what the other has but never confiding in one another about this.

I would recommend this book but would say that it is neither fast moving or an in depth story. I think that it needs to be taken on face value as a study of the different types of character and how they deal with everyday relationships. A quietly understated book.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

From BBC Radio 4 Extra:
In 1943 bomb-hit London, teacher Margaret Steggles falls under the spell of the wealthy Challis family.

Episode 2:
Teacher Margaret Steggles wonders if pompous playwright Gerald Challis really is the man of her dreams.

Stars Juliet Aubrey.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01322b0

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a little puzzled by this novel, which is very different to Cold Comfort Farm and sequels, the only other Stella Gibbons I’ve read. ‘Westwood’ at times reads like an arch and witty satire, but at others like a depressing family melodrama. The Second World War, during which it is set, is entirely incidental. My favourite example of the satirical bent:

‘...The play was called In Autumn; it was about a woman who was described by her friends as “corrupt yet fiery” - a sort of compost heap and bonfire in one, but not so useful as either.’

The book was at its most powerful and acerbic when adopting the point of view of Gerald Challis, playwright. His portrayal was a believable, albeit sometimes shocking, portrait of a well-bred, well-off, utterly arrogant man. I winced at the truth of this: ‘Like most seekers for an ideal woman, he did not really like women, believing that they disappointed and failed him on purpose’.

The majority of characters are women, however, including our ostensible protagonist, the unfortunately named Margaret Steggles. I sympathised with her, as she seemed to personify the plight of academically minded women at the time. Throughout the novel she yearns for interesting conversation, artistic experiences, and kindred spirits. By the end, she has been repeatedly disappointed and told by various older characters that she can either expect to get married or become a religiously obsessed spinster. Neither prospect attracts her. I wanted her to know that the life she wishes for could be found in studying at university, although that wouldn’t become a likely prospect for a lower middle class girl until decades later. Thus Gibbons seems to have drawn attention to the sad plight of a single woman, but I couldn’t determine whether she was trying to make that wider social point. Maybe? But all the usual 1940s sexism, racism, and ableism was present too.

This novel is fluidly written, but not that much actually happens. I felt that it neither went deep into the protagonist’s soul (as The Rector's Daughter does) nor really pursued a wider family drama angle. Thus it was ultimately rather unsatisfying, despite contained elements that definitely merit recommendation.

[Rachel Stevenson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The plot is minimal, there is much telling, not showing and too many authorial interruptions, but my gosh: the characters, they are fabulous. Margaret, the plain, sensible one who nonetheless longs for beauty, truth, art, something more than the tedious suburban life with her tedious suburban mother; her BFF Hilda, the opposite of Margaret who thinks nothing of beauty or art, and just wants to have fun with service men on leave (without ever risking her future marriage prospects).

That's the side of the suburbs. On the bohemian side, up in Hampstead, are the Challises and the Nilands: artists, writers, self-servers. Quite monstrous is Hebe, the spoilt daughter who unloads her children onto any passing person and instead of being grateful to Margaret for looking after them, tells her a story about her parents and grandparents and justifies it to herself “I thought it would do instead of thanking her". If she were alive nowadays, she's be called Poppy, and would be Chelsea-tractoring her way round Primrose Hill in her Lululemon yoga pants and always turning up late for the childminder.

Most monstrous of all if Gerald Challis, Hebe's father. He is apparently based on Charles Morgan, a now forgotten writer, who didn't believe writing should or could be humorous. He falls for Hilda and writes her into his new play as a tragedian, a character who kills herself because men keep falling for her, whilst never really understanding anything about women. If he was alive now he'd still be unaware of his misogyny ("How can I hate women? My wife is one").

Although Gibbons was satirising the way male writers portray female characters in their fiction, way before it was fashionable to do so, the book is hardly feminist – marriage is still the aim of women, with a career being only a stop-gap until that goal is met. Margaret finds happiness through self-sacrifice and child-care (of other people's children).

The war, apart from destroying the Nilands' cottage, doesn't really touch these characters - there's rationing and air-raids, but lives and loves go on as before. The one thing Gibbons moots is that books and plays about art and death belong to the time before the war, that common-sense and cheeriness (much like Flora Poste is Cold Comfort Farm) is what is needed during times of war.

[Ange · Rating 2 out of 5]

The cover was very appealing, as was the back cover blurb. But I was disappointed in Westwood, and had I not been on a break in a hut in the bush, with no electricity, I would probably have given up after several chapters. The heroine, Margaret, claimed to be imaginative and sensitive, with a love for art and all things beautiful. However she came across as rather dull, and even pathetic, in the way she allowed herself to be put-upon by the Challis and Niland families - called upon to mind the children whenever the parents and grandparents couldn't be bothered. I don't ususally have any problems with unlikeable characters, but aside from Margaret who was exceptionally dull, most of the many other characters in this book were shallow and vain, particularly Mr Challis, his daughter Hebe Niland, Margaret's friend Hilda Wilson, and Alex Niland, the artist. Not having even one character to relate to made it quite difficult to feel involved in this novel. A little humour would have gone a long way to making it more palatable, and in general I felt that this novel was very dated, particularly in the parts when Margaret helped to look after the disabled daughter of her Father's colleague Dick.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would be a good candidate for republication by Persephone books. The novel opens with a vibrantly beautiful description of a day in London, and then drops the information that it's wartime and all this beauty being soaked in by people reaching out for beauty and happiness in the midst of ruin.
The heroine is an earnest, beauty hungry person who has her dreams answered by becoming attached to a playwrights family, and she heads towards the disillusionment the reader expects. It's not a predictable little tale, though. Gibbons wittily leads her heroine to the brink of what looks like a disappointing accommodation and lesson learned, she and leads her away to something deeper and more interesting. The very ending is a bit heavy-handed, but the wit, originality, and thoughtful morality of this novel is memorable.

[Trin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not part of the cult of Cold Comfort Farm, although as I recall I liked it fine. This, I did not like. It's long and incredibly slow, filled with deeply unsympathetic characters -- I think the only person I liked was Hilda. Philandering playwright Mr. Challis is, intentionally, a pretentious idiot, but the charm of this parody wears thin, especially when notably not contrasted with our protagonist, Margaret, who is unpleasant and small minded. The way Gibbons writes about disability in the back third is appalling. She does a little better by her Jewish characters -- a lot better than many of her peers, though that's damning with faint praise. Zita feels like a real person, albeit an annoying one, but these flaws are (mostly) not tied to her Jewishness. However, Margaret -- and every other character's -- lack of sympathy or even interest at what Zita, a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany, has and is going through, and how that might affect her, is astonishing.

There are some beautiful and loving passages about the English countryside and the area around Hamstead Heath, but this novel mostly just tried my patience, right up to and including the odd religious turn at the end. It did not inspire me to seek out any more of Gibbons' work.

[Suzanne Bailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Westwood is the first novel I have read by Stella Gibbons and it certainly won’t be the last. I’m excited to have been introduced to an author who writes so melodically.

The quote on the back cover, commending her skills as a writer to those of Jane Austen, is very apt: I found her observations of society and class structure of 1930s wartime very convincing.

Margaret is an interesting character, not a traditional beauty like many of Austen’s characters, her flaws are brought directly to the forefront by the author from the start. Margaret is a character who yearns for a better life, I wouldn’t say she was obsessed with money or climbing the social ladder, but she observes that money can bring more freedom and leisure time and she also seeks the higher intellect of the rich and the people who have experienced more culture than her own family and her sole friend, Hilda.

This is moreover a moral tale, it follows Margaret’s journey of self awareness as she gains experience outside of her set institutions of home and school. It’s not a dramatic turn of character, but enough to create a very slightly more rounded, but overall likeable, character.

Gibbons’s portrayal of the sexes is also a main theme, her men appear clueless about their female counterparts; the women are judged by men solely by their beauty and their ability to cheer their menfolk.

There is no discussion regarding their creative abilities or intellect. Margaret herself is an oddity, craving culture and improvement of mind and is often laughed at, mocked or just about suffered. Her nickname of ‘Struggles’ is an apt name as she struggles to find herself, struggles to be accepted by both her friends, family and ‘betters’, and struggles to find love.

I find Margaret’s struggle to find love the most convincing aspect of the novel and the most relevant for today. Margaret has enough self awareness to know that it is not true love with Mr Challis, with Frank, or with her father’s newspaper friend, whose name I forget!

Margaret understands that - at this time of the novel - to be loved, means to be married and then to be house bound. Margaret’s mother is a warning against marriage, mistreated by her husband, stuck at home and resentful of her life. Marriage is further shown as something to be avoided by the Challis’s and the Niland’s marriage as well as Lady Challis’s. The only couple who are able to show a successful and loving marriage are Hilda’s parents who play very minor roles in the novel.

[Sonia · Rating 2 out of 5]

La editorial Impedimenta se ha dedicado en los últimos años a rescatar posibles joyas de la literatura extranjera que los españoles nos habíamos perdido hasta ahora o que simplemente estaban olvidas y entre ellas se encuentra, o debería encontrarse Westwood. Hay una razón para el uso del condicional y es que, en mi opinión, esta obra podría haber seguido en su rincón del pasado sin que la echáramos en falta.
La novela adolece de dos problemas principales frente al público actual hispano hablante. Por un lado es una historia muy local, muy inglesa, que necesita un conocimiento previo de la sociedad del Reino Unido para así poder apreciar las formas descritas en el libro o el ambiente que rodea a los personajes. Por otro lado es una historia anclada en su tiempo, los últimos años de la segunda guerra mundial. En el momento de su publicación era conocido por sus posibles lectores tanto el paisaje como los autores, diseñadores o artistas descritos en él, de ahí que no se necesitaran ni aclaraciones, ni contextualización o descripciones. Al cambiar de público objetivo, la novela necesita casi 90 explicaciones en forma de pié de página para que lleguemos a atisbar de qué nos está hablando.
Hay historias que sin embargo son universales, podría una trama interesante salvar los obstáculos descritos anteriormente pero no es el caso. Parte de la falta de interés o apego que pude sentir por el discurrir de la historia son las frases categóricas definiendo el carácter masculino y femenino, que si bien quizás podrían aplicarse a aquella época, están tan alejadas de nuestra realidad actual que su anacronismo y mi rechazo dificultan el deleite por la historia. Además la trama es lenta y no sólo es capaz de despertar el interés lector en pocos momentos.
Sólo recomendaría este libro a fervientes amantes de lo británico y estos seguro que saben inglés así que, mejor lean la obra original porque en esta también había alguna que otra frase traducida de aquellas maneras. Los demás, lean otra cosa.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Often reads like a rough draft where an author has indicated lots of places where she's going to come back later and devise a way to "show, not tell," but then never got around to it. Still, somewhere around the halfway point I found myself engaged enough to stick it out. And there are a few funny bits, most of them involving the word "Grandpa," and the glimpse at the lives and times is a nice bonus.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the blurb on the edition I read: "Stella Gibbons is the Austen of the 20th century".
It's great to see she seems to be having a come-back with her other books, and won't just be remembered for the brilliant "Cold Comfort Farm".

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

¡Maravillosa!Llevo leídas con esta obra cuatro novelas de Stella Gibbons y debo admitir que esta autora es mi nueva debilidad.

[Nicola Doherty · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great book, with one of the most brilliant portrait of a pretentious author EVER … I think this is even better than Cold Comfort Farm.

[Charlotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a real fan of cold comfort farm, this had to be read. I felt it more subtle and of a slower pace. Gibbons is a true observer I enjoyed the development of each character.

[Gayle · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

Westwood by Stella Gibbons, set during the Blitz, is the story of Margaret Steggles, a young woman, who moves to London with her parents. She works as a teacher but finds very little happiness in either her work or home life. Her marriage prospects are limited by her looks - so say those that know her. Her parents are unhappily married and her father has affairs which are known about and tolerated by both Margaret and the tough Mrs Steggles. Her brother is away in the army. In contrast, Margaret’s friend Hilda who lives nearby, is extremely pretty and does not struggle to attract a stream of male admirers. On a walk on Hampstead Heath, Margaret finds a ration book belonging to the Challises and goes to Westwood to return it. And so begins a tale of obsession with the house and its occupants. Abandoning Hilda, Margaret contrives a friendship with housekeeper Zita so that she can continue to visit Westwood and desires nothing more than to meet the owner, Gerald Challis whom she respects and admires as a playwright (but who is an irritating, self-centred, womanising character). Meanwhile Gerald's attentions are diverted with writing a new play and pursuing an obsession of his own.


Stella Gibbons wrote 28 novels and short story collections. I’ve read Cold Comfort Farm and Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons, so this is the third book I’ve read by this author. I really enjoyed reading about what life was like as an ordinary young woman during the war, working, going to parties and the theatre, travelling around the city and blackouts – and Margaret was a steady, relatable character who I wanted to see succeed as she navigated her early 20’s. I think it was a little too long. Overall I enjoyed it and really want to read more by the author.

[Marijke Vansteenkiste · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ik ben zelf verrast dat ik uiteindelijk 4 sterren wil geven aan dit boek. In het begin vond ik het verhaal heel traag, met heel veel lang uitgesponnen beschrijvingen. Maar die beschrijvingen van het gebombardeerde Londen zijn fascinerend omdat ze vaak focussen op schoonheid en sprekende details. Het dweperige hoofdpersonage leer je goed kennen op dit trage ritme en zou je af en toe eens door elkaar willen schudden. Raar ook hoe mensen leven in een oorlog en er zich weinig van aan lijken te trekken. Het bonnenboekje, de black-outs en de sirenes zijn zo normaal geworden voor de personages die vooral obsessief met zichzelf bezig zijn.
Puntje van kritiek (en ergernis): waarom wordt de Joodse vluchteling Zita zo karikaturaal voorgesteld?

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has the same sort of autumnal feel as some of Barbara Pym's work. It has a yearning feeling throughout, because of the main character, Margaret, who is always searching for something more meaningful in her life. Margaret is a schoolteacher during World War II in England, and she has a new teaching position at a girls' school in London. She is enchanted by the idea of living in Hampstead, in close proximity to famous painters and playwrights, especially Gerard Challis, whose plays she much admires. She gains the entree into the Challis home, Westwood, by befriending their Jewish refugee housekeeper, Zita. There are several plot threads, some involving Margaret's good friend Hilda, and some involving the extended family around the Challises and Westwood. This is a quietly fascinating book. It's also a book about London during World War II that I actually enjoyed. I will read it again.

[Jack Bates · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is good - and some of the sarcastic bits about the very annoying Mr Challis are very funny - but it's no Cold Comfort Farm. It's unfortunate when someone's first book is so much more successful than all their others. She's a good writer though and this is very interesting from a setting point of view, as it's post-Blitz but before the doodlebug raids, and you don't often get a book set in the war (I think it was written in 1946) where the war is obviously going on but not really the focus of any of the main characters, despite various very much war-related incidents.

[Faith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was completely charming. The characters were all wonderfully realised and, almost without exception, immensely unpleasant and ultimately disappointing. The ending was a little unsatisfying but I quickly realised that it was because it was immensely true to life - there's never a clean, tidy ending in reality. A lovely book.

[Wendyfoleybtinternet.Com · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read Cold Comfort Farm many times, a discussion brought up that Gibbons actually preferred her many other novels so I thought I'd try this, her supposed favourite

I was not disappointed, only in the fact that the one date in the library record for borrowing was 2011

Her characters are realistic if dated (set in 40's) and her style and descriptions a delight to read
Give it a go!

[Kris McCracken · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent enough little romp set in wartime-London, filled with the loathsome members of a pretentious middle class family who treat the hapless narrator with the contempt that only the posh can muster. Does a great job of capturing the mood of the time.

[José · Rating 3 out of 5]

Westwood o los Nobles Poderes: Belleza, Tiempo, Pasado y Compasión.

La risa también se incluye.

Margaret se debate entre las ensoñaciones amorosas por un dramaturgo maduro y su hijo pintor, que le tira los tejos al final. Ambientada en la Londres bombardeada de la Segunda Guerra Mundial.