A House In Flanders

by Michael Jenkins

In 1951, a shy and solitary 14-year-old boy was sent by his parents to spend the summer with ‘the aunts in Flanders’. So began for Michael Jenkins a formative experience which, when he came to write about it half a century later, reappeared to him ‘as in a dream, complete but surreal’. A House in Flanders, his account of those summer months spent on the edge of the Flanders Plain, does indeed have a hypnotic and dreamlike quality. The dignified old French country house with its unvarying routines; the extended family of elderly aunts, uncles and grown-up cousins (with one of whom he fell boyishly in love); and the summer warmth and wide Flemish skies were like an awakening to a young boy whose home in England was a ‘cold and empty place’ and whose parents, he felt, ‘preferred frigid intellectual exchanges to the more complicated and demanding world of personal relationships’. Yet all was not as golden as at first seemed. The German occupation had left its mark, and in 1951 memories of it were still raw and painful. Gradually, through his vivid portraits of the various members – in particular of the firm but kindly matriarch Tante Yvonne – Michael Jenkins teases out the history of the family and of the surrounding area and uncovers the secret at the heart of the book – the reason he has been sent there. ‘A radiant book’, wrote Dirk Bogarde in the Daily Telegraph, ‘a whole spectrum of colours and lights, of delights and elegances, of wistfulness and love’. The perfect summer read.

Genres: Memoir, France, Nonfiction, Biography, Travel, History, Contemporary

159 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Michael Jenkins has spent most of his career in the British Diplomatic Service and has served in Paris, Moscow, the Hague, Bonn, Washington, and Brussels, where he was for a time Deputy Secretary-General of the European Commission.

While at the Embassy in Moscow, Jenkins wrote his first book "Arakcheev, Grand Vizier of the Russian Empire," a biography of one of the ministers of Alexander I. He was knighted in 1990.

Educated privately and at King's College, Cambridge, Jenkins spent much of his youth in France. He is married and has a son and a daughter.

Reviews

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gentle and rather touching memoir. In 1951 the author, aged 14 at the time, was sent from England to spend an extended summer in northeast France, in a sort of mansion house near the coast and the Belgian border. The house was inhabited by six elderly ladies, one younger woman, and one elderly gentleman, who was a sibling of three of the ladies and the husband of another. The head of household, and very much its dominant figure, was the eldest sister, Yvonne, who was around 80 at the time. The author refers to her as “Tante Yvonne”. The family seem to have been local gentry, with servants, and land leased out to tenant farmers.

The time the author spent in the house was clearly of great significance in his life. It was, as he put it, a period when he wanted time to stand still. The book introduces us to each of the main characters one by one, as well as to a few of the other local inhabitants. The general picture is one of a rural idyll, but the impact of the two world wars gradually becomes clearer as the book moves on. The sisters originally had 3 brothers, but one was killed in WW1 and another had a leg amputated, never fully recovered, and died 10 years later. The surviving brother seems to suffer from a form of PTSD. The area was not occupied during WW1, unless it was by the British. The frontline lay around Ypres, described as being about 30 miles to the east. It was of course occupied in WW2, and some of the secrets of that time are also revealed.

A cynic might say that Yvonne seems a rather idealised figure, but she may have seemed so to a 14-year-old.

A short book, but one that is very much worth reading.

[Diane Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a quiet, gentle book, my favorite type of bedtime reading. A 14 year old English boy spends the summer of 1951 with elderly aunts and uncles in Flanders, France. He slowly becomes the repository of secrets and teases out the whole story of the old house and what both world wars did to the family. Not for readers who need a plot or excitement, but an easy going memoir. This is one I'll keep on my shelf of comfort reads.

[Mary Durrant · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a lovely gem of a book!
Eccentric Aunts, heartbroken lovers, secrets and the never ending shadow cast by the two world wars.
A bygone era where everything was peaceful.
I could just imagine myself there.
I loved this endearing story with the many wonderful characters and descriptions of the countryside.

[Steve Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magical. Although this was quite a short story, I loved it so much. This one will stay with me. The writing was so well done, I felt myself transported to northern France for a while.

[KOMET · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here is a remarkable story (told by an unnamed Englishman, sharing with the reader his memories of the long summer of 1951, which he spent as an adolescent in a small French village straddling the Belgian frontier) of a family largely made up of women. Strong, resilient, loving and compassionate women of varied temperaments across 2 generations. They are "the Aunts", who, along with an "Uncle" and a host of relations, eagerly welcome the English adolescent (who, thanks to his mother, was already passably conversant in French) into the fullness of their lives.

The matriarch of the family is the eldest, Tante Yvonne, who is in her mid-80s and has devoted her life to her siblings and community. "She radiated calm and authority. Small, almost squat, she moved slowly with the help of a silver-capped cane. Her expression was usually kindly, but her hooded eyes were full of intelligence and wit, and her glance was still penetrating." No shrinking violet, she.

The author proceeds to tell the reader, chapter by chapter, about some of the colorful characters who constitute the heart and soul of this book. In this way, the reader becomes a part of the great old house in which the family resides and is witness to a community on the cusp of change in the early postwar world.

When I began to read this book, I confess I wasn't sure I'd like it. But as I read deeper into it, I became enchanted and fascinated with the various family members, whom the author made flesh in my imagination with a dazzling economy of words. Anyone in search of a well-written, poignant, and at turns funny and endearing story need look no further. You'll savor the experience.

[Julie Durnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good accounting of a young boy spending the summer at his family's home in Flanders. His descriptions of life and his aunts are endearing seen through a fourteen-year olds eyes. This was certainly worth the read and made me wish to visit and have tea with them all!

[Rosemary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this little gem of a book. Set in northern France during one golden summer, when an English boy is sent to stay with French 'aunts', it's heavily nostalgic but all the sweeter for it. One to savour and reread!

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

[Amy Ferns · Rating 5 out of 5]

'A House in Flanders' is a biography and personal memoir by Michael Jenkins originally published in January 1992. This book is written using quite simple language and it is very easy to understand. This is a great account of a summer holiday spent by a young boy at his family's home in Northern France. From the way the author has described his aunts and his relationship with them I feel as if I personally know them. I love the way Michael tells of his many aunts and uncles each in a different chapter . He uses the first and third person dialogue and paints a great picture on how hard things were in1951, France . I feel that this book made me understand family relationships better.

I recommend anyone who is interested in knowing differnt kind of people and their personalities.This book was so amazing for a summer read that I finished it on my commute to and from work . I thank my boyfriend for recommending it to me and would love to go and visit Flanders.

[Trisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fictionalized memoir written by a man whose parents sent him to spend the summer of 1951 in a rambling old French country house close to a tiny village near the Belgian border. As an adult he looks back with nostalgia on what happened that summer and the bittersweet mystery surrounding why he was sent there in the first place since he was not related to the “aunts and uncles” who lived there at all but soon grew to love them anyway.

He had been welcomed with warmth, generosity and affection by an extended family of five elderly sisters together with their aged and somewhat infirm brother. Each chapter was devoted to one of these colorful characters and a sometimes charming, sometimes exasperating array of relatives, household staff and neighbors from the nearby village.

But life hadn’t always been as tranquil and orderly as it first seemed to Michael Jenkins during that summer of 1951. The gentle beauty of the countryside and orderly existence of those who lived there had been violently disrupted by the events of The Great War and the years leading up to the occupation of France during WWII. “We have played out our lives against a somber tapestry,” mused one of the women from the village, and as the summer progressed Michael was to discover just how closely he himself was linked to what had happened all those years ago.

I very much enjoyed this charming little book not only because of the evocative portrait it painted of a way of life that has vanished but also because of the perspective it provided about the impact historical events have on those who live through them.

[The Farmer's Wife · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful tale. I am lost in the pages of this simple,yet charismatic read. I feel as if I knew all the players, saw all the scenes, heard all the dialogue. What a privilege to be allowed to become, however briefly, one of the family residing in, A House In Flanders.....

[Martinxo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful!

[Joan Morin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it.

[jordon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I acquired this book at Walden Books in Camden; they have a great collection of second-hand books, where I picked up the 'Slightly Foxed' 2010/2013 Paperback edition - this adds a retrospective 2-3 pages to the Epilogue, upon visiting the House after the book was first published.

I love this book so much, it's incredibly cosy and I could completely sink into it. The chapters split into each of the family/village members made for a great structure and lets you understand each of their personalities intimately, as Jenkins' recall of them each is clearly so fond.

This made me yearn. Not only for the places and people which I can call home, but for the reconnection with family; something that Jenkins experiences and describes so well.

A beautiful book; also the paired illustrations from Catherine Jenkins were a visual treat. Overall, a lovely read on the tube to work and on the way home.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had this as a Slightly Foxed paperback which includes some lovely pencil sketches of the various locations. It is set in Flanders in France in 1951 and is a memoir of a fourteen year old English schoolboy who spent an extended school holiday (an epidemic had closed the school) in a large house with numerous nominal aunts and once uncle. it is a sequence of pen portraits of the various characters he encounters including visits to a nearby village and hamlet and some tenant farmers. The after effects of the occupation of WW2 colour the narrative. Not much happens but I found the well drawn characters got under my skin. However, it's not a book I intend to keep and read again.

[Géraldine · Rating 3 out of 5]

L'auteur britannique se remémore ses étés d'adolescence lorsqu'il passait ses vacances "chez les tantes dans les Flandres", c'est à dire dans les Flandres françaises du Nord. Évidemment je manque complétément l'apport exotique de ces mémoires, n'étant pas une lectrice britannique. Cependant, c'est un livre plaisant, avec des personnages-un ensemble hétéroclite de tantes âgées et de cousins et cousines-vivants. L'ensemble reste marqué d'idéalisme adolescent ce qui rend l'ensemble doux, mêlant nostalgie, secrets et aventures.

[Alex Pizzoni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting read, focusing on different characters within the family. This is done for each chapter.
Having just returned from Amsterdam, it seemed a very relevant one which was worth reading.
Uses the first and third person a lot and would recommend this read for someone who likes focusing on different characters. Putting yourself in the shoes of them!

[Jane Wetzel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A House in Flanders is a fascinating and yet "gentle" read about the now elderly family matriarchs along with the younger generation, their relationships with their land, their neighbors and townspeople and how WWII affected their lives then and now. I enjoyed this book immensely. It was straight forward and created great mind visuals. Loved Michael Jenkins' writing.

[Melanie Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1951 fourteen year old Michael Jenkins is sent to spend the summer with his aunts in Flanders, France. This memoir, which was originally published in 1992, captures the essence of a golden summer that changed Michael's life. It's a nostalgic, endearing story with beautiful descriptions of the countryside and explores the resilience and human connection of family.

[Brian Gowthorpe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful gem of a book. An English schoolboy from an unhappy home of distant parents finds comfort and fascination in the complexities of a sprawling bourgeois French country dynasty. He grows up amidst their tensions and disappointments, falling in love and learning to deal with people. The writing , particularly in the first ost of the book, is assured and atmospheric.

[Irni Farid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bought as remembrance during my travel to Brussels. Indeed a gentle melancholy memoir which brought tears in my eyes as I ended my reading.

Fourteen year-old boy was sent by his parents to Flanders for a summer. Shy and awkward he was but he blended into the life of the matriarch, Yvonne and her siblings. Flanders become his home. They become his family though not related by blood.

[Gerard de Bruin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jenkins is not a great writer, nor a great stylist, he is a civil servant first and for all. That said: this a lovingly written remembrance of an early fifties adulthood and a valuable piece of social history as well.

[Jess Shaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely beautiful - it captured the quirks of family members set within the gentle pace of a summer holiday

[Veronica · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a slightly bland, nostalgic story -- an easy read for a hot summer afternoon, but I don't think it will be very memorable.

[Malene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful tale of the author's childhood summer holiday with aunts in France. Adventures and connections which enriches his life. A perfect holiday book.

[Brown Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really, really loved it. Such a simple, beautiful, well-written read.

[Maria Dutton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet, an easy read. Not stayed with me particularly

[Wendy G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful book about eccentric aunts, and their stories- and true.

[Helga · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved it

[Devs38 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book. The characters and scenery are drawn very well. Engaging from the start. A great representation of life in rural France in the first half of the 20th Century.