What do you think?
Rate this book
The House Opposite
It was curious that the aerial bombardment of London, which had ennobled so much that was normally sordid, should only debase a love affair between two people who had managed for three years to overcome the threat to their relations implicit in all such. To die together would be simple. It would not be so simple to be dug out still alive from the same collapsed building.
Elizabeth Simpson is a secretary having an affair with her married boss. Her father is an air raid warden and her terrified mother takes her courage from concealed bottles of rum. Owen Cathcart, their neurotic teenage neighbour, slips out during night raids to watch the fireworks and collect souvenirs of shrapnel. And Bob Craven, a soldier Elizabeth uses as cover for her illicit romance, plans his taxi rides to see the most dramatic bomb damage.
In this riveting drama of life during the Blitz, the extraordinary immediacy and vivid, intimate detail stem directly from the first-hand experiences of Barbara Noble, who lived and worked in London throughout the war. The result is a unique social document and an unforgettable reading experience. ‘The most satisfying picture yet of what life was like in London during those hectic months.’ Times of India
Elizabeth Simpson is a secretary having an affair with her married boss. Her father is an air raid warden and her terrified mother takes her courage from concealed bottles of rum. Owen Cathcart, their neurotic teenage neighbour, slips out during night raids to watch the fireworks and collect souvenirs of shrapnel. And Bob Craven, a soldier Elizabeth uses as cover for her illicit romance, plans his taxi rides to see the most dramatic bomb damage.
In this riveting drama of life during the Blitz, the extraordinary immediacy and vivid, intimate detail stem directly from the first-hand experiences of Barbara Noble, who lived and worked in London throughout the war. The result is a unique social document and an unforgettable reading experience. ‘The most satisfying picture yet of what life was like in London during those hectic months.’ Times of India
311 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1943
24 people are currently reading
590 people want to read
About the author
Barbara Noble
10 books9 followersBarbara Noble (1907–2001) was an English publisher and novelist. She wrote 6 novels of her own, and as head of the London office of Doubleday was instrumental in the publication of thousands of others.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
September 10, 2023
I had this novel sitting on my Kindle for quite some time, so long in fact that I can’t remember what prompted me to originally download it. Whatever the reason, it was a good decision because I really enjoyed this one.
I knew the book was set during the London Blitz, but until starting it I hadn’t realised that it had been published in 1943, so it’s a novel that gives us a contemporaneous picture of how people in London thought and acted during the Blitz, and how they adjusted to living under constant air raids. One of the things that surprises all of the characters is how life carries on between the raids. The mood of the time was one where keeping calm, or at least giving that impression, was seen by many as scoring a small personal victory over Hitler. It is very important to everyone not to be regarded as “windy”.
The novel has multiple perspectives but the two main characters are Elizabeth Simpson, an office secretary in her late twenties who is in a relationship with her married boss, and Owen Cathcart, a teenage boy who lives in “the house opposite” of the title. Owen is worried that he may be sexually attracted to other men, his concern about this being a reflection of the social attitudes of the time. The novel also features the parents of both characters as well as a variety of others.
I felt the characterisation in this novel was very strong. Everyone featured has their good and bad points, some leaning more one way overall and some the other. Everyone felt very real to me though, with nuances of people’s personalities being sharply portrayed. There’s a particular thread running through the book, with the author gradually dropping clues. I can’t say more for fear of spoilers, but if you read the book you’ll recognise it.
The story moves from the autumn of 1940 to the late spring of 1941. Few actual dates are mentioned, but one exception is 16 April 1941, when there was a particularly big raid. In real life my mother had an aunt who was killed in that raid, so I found it interesting that the book particularly highlighted that date. That chapter is followed by one where Elizabeth acts as a volunteer auxiliary in a hospital. It’s very powerfully written. Another aspect that stood out for me was how Elizabeth travels home each night on the tube, and the stations are crowded with what are effectively people’s bedrooms. It’s a situation in which the passengers have become the intruders.
All in all an unexpectedly good find, from an author who, in my opinion, is now undeservedly obscure.
There’s a remark towards the end where one character looks back on the past months and says, “People will remember our generation and be proud of us, I hope.” We do, and we are.
I knew the book was set during the London Blitz, but until starting it I hadn’t realised that it had been published in 1943, so it’s a novel that gives us a contemporaneous picture of how people in London thought and acted during the Blitz, and how they adjusted to living under constant air raids. One of the things that surprises all of the characters is how life carries on between the raids. The mood of the time was one where keeping calm, or at least giving that impression, was seen by many as scoring a small personal victory over Hitler. It is very important to everyone not to be regarded as “windy”.
The novel has multiple perspectives but the two main characters are Elizabeth Simpson, an office secretary in her late twenties who is in a relationship with her married boss, and Owen Cathcart, a teenage boy who lives in “the house opposite” of the title. Owen is worried that he may be sexually attracted to other men, his concern about this being a reflection of the social attitudes of the time. The novel also features the parents of both characters as well as a variety of others.
I felt the characterisation in this novel was very strong. Everyone featured has their good and bad points, some leaning more one way overall and some the other. Everyone felt very real to me though, with nuances of people’s personalities being sharply portrayed. There’s a particular thread running through the book, with the author gradually dropping clues. I can’t say more for fear of spoilers, but if you read the book you’ll recognise it.
The story moves from the autumn of 1940 to the late spring of 1941. Few actual dates are mentioned, but one exception is 16 April 1941, when there was a particularly big raid. In real life my mother had an aunt who was killed in that raid, so I found it interesting that the book particularly highlighted that date. That chapter is followed by one where Elizabeth acts as a volunteer auxiliary in a hospital. It’s very powerfully written. Another aspect that stood out for me was how Elizabeth travels home each night on the tube, and the stations are crowded with what are effectively people’s bedrooms. It’s a situation in which the passengers have become the intruders.
All in all an unexpectedly good find, from an author who, in my opinion, is now undeservedly obscure.
There’s a remark towards the end where one character looks back on the past months and says, “People will remember our generation and be proud of us, I hope.” We do, and we are.
October 2, 2020
5 Huge Stars for this one.
A book I am unlikely to ever forget! One of the most realistic books I’ve read that takes place during the Blitz. Ordinary people living through extraordinary times.
This book was written in 1943. Barbara Noble was in London when all the devastation was occurring. From her, we are seeing a first hand account of what the ordinary citizen was going through.
“ What’s so odd is that it will seem so far away tomorrow morning. If anyone had told me five years ago....I wouldn’t have been surprised about the air raids, but I should never have believed that life could be so normal in between.”
“ There was something very touching in the good-humour of tired Londoners.”
“ Mixed with the rubble of one house, a number of household objects had remained intactA: a saucepan. A knife box, a coloured supplement in a frame with its glass miraculously unbroken, and a bound volume of “The Family Herald”.....The whole built up a picture of elderly, old fashioned people, living decently on very small means.”
Recently, I finished The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson. This book was a perfect companion novel- as this time we are right on the streets with the people who lived through the bombings.
I can’t say enough about this book to do it justice. All I can say is read it- I highly recommend it.
Many thanks to Heaven Ali, whose review was the impetus to buying this book.
A book I am unlikely to ever forget! One of the most realistic books I’ve read that takes place during the Blitz. Ordinary people living through extraordinary times.
This book was written in 1943. Barbara Noble was in London when all the devastation was occurring. From her, we are seeing a first hand account of what the ordinary citizen was going through.
“ What’s so odd is that it will seem so far away tomorrow morning. If anyone had told me five years ago....I wouldn’t have been surprised about the air raids, but I should never have believed that life could be so normal in between.”
“ There was something very touching in the good-humour of tired Londoners.”
“ Mixed with the rubble of one house, a number of household objects had remained intactA: a saucepan. A knife box, a coloured supplement in a frame with its glass miraculously unbroken, and a bound volume of “The Family Herald”.....The whole built up a picture of elderly, old fashioned people, living decently on very small means.”
Recently, I finished The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson. This book was a perfect companion novel- as this time we are right on the streets with the people who lived through the bombings.
I can’t say enough about this book to do it justice. All I can say is read it- I highly recommend it.
Many thanks to Heaven Ali, whose review was the impetus to buying this book.
February 26, 2025
I've read lots of novels about WWII that mention the Blitz and the London destruction, but this is the first one that put me squarely in the action on a daily basis. I felt the fear when the sirens sounded and the planes flew over, never knowing if this bomb had your name on it. Then the relief at the all clear, back to daily life as normal as you could make it, until the next time, sometimes nightly. Against this background Owen is an 18 year old trying to grow up and make sense of the world, living with his parents. Across the street is 28 year old Elizabeth Simpson living with her anxiety ridden mother and wise father Henry. Elizabeth is having an affair with her married boss, made easier because his wife and children have relocated to the country for safety. There are many peripheral characters that we come to care about as well.
The beauty of this book is the immediacy and reality it offers the reader as we follow these people through a few months of their lives. Not only are there secrets and lies, but secret knowledge by some that changes their own lives and outlooks simply because of what they know.
If you value your reading time and don't like to waste it with mediocre writing and characters, take a look at this one. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
The beauty of this book is the immediacy and reality it offers the reader as we follow these people through a few months of their lives. Not only are there secrets and lies, but secret knowledge by some that changes their own lives and outlooks simply because of what they know.
If you value your reading time and don't like to waste it with mediocre writing and characters, take a look at this one. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
January 11, 2025
This absorbing novel is actually a primary historical source, written just after the London Blitz in the Second World War, and detailing how Londoners coped with heavy bomber attacks night upon night for nine months. 43,5000 civilians were killed, among them my great-aunt, Margaret Davies, who died in Bear Street aged 30, on 16th April 1941, a month before the raids ceased until nearer the end of the war. Along with the rest of the dead of the Blitz, she is “remembered with honour” by the City of Westminster and “commemorated in perpetuity by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission”.
Barbara Noble lived and worked in London during the Blitz, as does her protagonist, Elizabeth Simpson, a secretary. The author’s vehicle is fiction but her context is true, and recreated in intimate and beautifully handled detail. The storyline explores human relationships amidst the ever-worsening destruction, contrasting the most ordinary and even mundane events of daily life with the horror of the bombing and the vehement resistance of the Londoners, who turn out night after night on warden or fire-watcher duties after doing a full day’s work in the most trying of circumstances, claiming every life saved as a victory against Hitler. The most harrowing chapter, though, is when Elizabeth Simpson, a volunteer nurse, is called in to the hospital after a bomb has hit a dance hall. There is question in this chapter of whether the young women in the ward whose bodies have been permanently and horribly disfigured, would thank their rescuers for saving their lives.
The interplay between characters, and their response to the Blitz, sustain the unexceptional tale of the love affair taking place between Elizabeth and her boss, Alex Foster. I’m not spoiling the story here, as this is revealed right at the beginning. More interesting to me, and reflected in the book’s title, was the exploration of the relationship between her and a boy of eighteen in the house opposite, Owen Cathcart, and his personal angst. I should mention here that this thread in the story hinges on a now politically incorrect phrase, “a pansy boy”. Even if you are offended by this, it’s well worth reading on. There’s a sensitive, delicate portrait of a young man whose perception of himself is dictated by the phrase – again, this is early in the story, so I’m just setting the scene. There is a remarkable and well-drawn contrast, too, between the two sets of parents in the opposite houses.
I think what I liked best was the contemporary portrayal of how people felt and acted. The defence of London – the resistance, if you like – was vigorous. Courage and resilience in all circumstances were expected, played down by those who acted bravely, or had endured the worst of what the bombers could do; compassion for the bombed-out, the injured, the bereaved, was enabled by tragedy and fuelled by the sense of ‘doing one’s bit’ to save the country; humour sustained them, propelled them on through unimaginable horrors. Again near the beginning of the book, Elizabeth’s colleague, Joan Walsh, describes the previous night’s alarm and its routine effect of the other lodgers in the house:
“There was the most God-awful row going on about half-past nine, before that first All Clear, and we were all sitting in the basement pretending we didn’t hear it and Miss Dalrymple was telling an incredibly boring story about a Swiss alp she’d climbed in the ‘sixties, when suddenly, whoosh! Down came a thousand-pounder, I should say, about a couple of yards away – or that’s what it felt like, anyhow. The poor old house just rocked and the sideboard leant forward and bowed in a polite way and then went back again. I fell on my stomach and hit my head against the Major’s – he’d had the same idea. Mrs Henley let out a sort of strangled squeak, and Miss Dalrymple shot forward off her chair and then climbed back again in the most dignified way and said in just the same prim little voice: ‘I used to pick a lot of gentian and press it between the covers of a book. Such a lovely blue!’ Honestly, I have to hand it to the old girl.”
“What did you reply?”
“Oh, I’m honest. I just said: ‘Holy smoke, that was a near one!’ The Major took out a handkerchief and wiped his forehead and Mrs Henley scuttled out of the room. A close shave like that is as good as a dose of opening medicine to her.”
I loved the image of the sideboard!
Of course the book gets darker than this, and I should end with a more sober quote.
As the months passed, “London had adapted itself.”
“In their private lives, people who remained unaffected by such upheavals as the call-up or an alarmingly compulsory change of residence marked time. The immediate future was so uncertain that few cared to make a change for change’s sake. Governmental spokesmen uttered warnings of invasion in the spring, but practically nobody believed them. With sublime smugness, the vast bulk of the population of Britain listened to the message of their bones. Bones were obviously more reliable than politicians, though great respect was accorded to every word uttered by Mr. Churchill, however full of admonition. It was only to be hoped that he took sufficient precautions for his own safety. Probably not, the nation thought, and pitied, with a grin, those entrusted with his guardianship.”
I think, in all of this, the eighteen-year-old figure of Owen, “the pansy boy”, will remain with me. He was due to join the R.A.F. Life expectancy there was a matter of months, or even just weeks. And a young man called Tim, who has a brief sentence in the book – in more ways than one.
Ian's review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... - thanks to Ian for the present of this book.
Barbara Noble lived and worked in London during the Blitz, as does her protagonist, Elizabeth Simpson, a secretary. The author’s vehicle is fiction but her context is true, and recreated in intimate and beautifully handled detail. The storyline explores human relationships amidst the ever-worsening destruction, contrasting the most ordinary and even mundane events of daily life with the horror of the bombing and the vehement resistance of the Londoners, who turn out night after night on warden or fire-watcher duties after doing a full day’s work in the most trying of circumstances, claiming every life saved as a victory against Hitler. The most harrowing chapter, though, is when Elizabeth Simpson, a volunteer nurse, is called in to the hospital after a bomb has hit a dance hall. There is question in this chapter of whether the young women in the ward whose bodies have been permanently and horribly disfigured, would thank their rescuers for saving their lives.
The interplay between characters, and their response to the Blitz, sustain the unexceptional tale of the love affair taking place between Elizabeth and her boss, Alex Foster. I’m not spoiling the story here, as this is revealed right at the beginning. More interesting to me, and reflected in the book’s title, was the exploration of the relationship between her and a boy of eighteen in the house opposite, Owen Cathcart, and his personal angst. I should mention here that this thread in the story hinges on a now politically incorrect phrase, “a pansy boy”. Even if you are offended by this, it’s well worth reading on. There’s a sensitive, delicate portrait of a young man whose perception of himself is dictated by the phrase – again, this is early in the story, so I’m just setting the scene. There is a remarkable and well-drawn contrast, too, between the two sets of parents in the opposite houses.
I think what I liked best was the contemporary portrayal of how people felt and acted. The defence of London – the resistance, if you like – was vigorous. Courage and resilience in all circumstances were expected, played down by those who acted bravely, or had endured the worst of what the bombers could do; compassion for the bombed-out, the injured, the bereaved, was enabled by tragedy and fuelled by the sense of ‘doing one’s bit’ to save the country; humour sustained them, propelled them on through unimaginable horrors. Again near the beginning of the book, Elizabeth’s colleague, Joan Walsh, describes the previous night’s alarm and its routine effect of the other lodgers in the house:
“There was the most God-awful row going on about half-past nine, before that first All Clear, and we were all sitting in the basement pretending we didn’t hear it and Miss Dalrymple was telling an incredibly boring story about a Swiss alp she’d climbed in the ‘sixties, when suddenly, whoosh! Down came a thousand-pounder, I should say, about a couple of yards away – or that’s what it felt like, anyhow. The poor old house just rocked and the sideboard leant forward and bowed in a polite way and then went back again. I fell on my stomach and hit my head against the Major’s – he’d had the same idea. Mrs Henley let out a sort of strangled squeak, and Miss Dalrymple shot forward off her chair and then climbed back again in the most dignified way and said in just the same prim little voice: ‘I used to pick a lot of gentian and press it between the covers of a book. Such a lovely blue!’ Honestly, I have to hand it to the old girl.”
“What did you reply?”
“Oh, I’m honest. I just said: ‘Holy smoke, that was a near one!’ The Major took out a handkerchief and wiped his forehead and Mrs Henley scuttled out of the room. A close shave like that is as good as a dose of opening medicine to her.”
I loved the image of the sideboard!
Of course the book gets darker than this, and I should end with a more sober quote.
As the months passed, “London had adapted itself.”
“In their private lives, people who remained unaffected by such upheavals as the call-up or an alarmingly compulsory change of residence marked time. The immediate future was so uncertain that few cared to make a change for change’s sake. Governmental spokesmen uttered warnings of invasion in the spring, but practically nobody believed them. With sublime smugness, the vast bulk of the population of Britain listened to the message of their bones. Bones were obviously more reliable than politicians, though great respect was accorded to every word uttered by Mr. Churchill, however full of admonition. It was only to be hoped that he took sufficient precautions for his own safety. Probably not, the nation thought, and pitied, with a grin, those entrusted with his guardianship.”
I think, in all of this, the eighteen-year-old figure of Owen, “the pansy boy”, will remain with me. He was due to join the R.A.F. Life expectancy there was a matter of months, or even just weeks. And a young man called Tim, who has a brief sentence in the book – in more ways than one.
Ian's review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... - thanks to Ian for the present of this book.
October 29, 2019
Life during the Blitz.
Elizabeth is working as a secretary in wartime London and having an affair with her married boss. In the house opposite, Owen, 18 years old, has finished school and is waiting to be called up, when he hopes to join the RAF. Their lives start to intertwine as the blitz goes on and friendships are formed, particularly between Elizabeth and Owen as they talk while on Fire-watch and begin to understand each other much better. Their hopes and fears are the same then, as they could be for people living now, but heightened. The blitz is something that is put up with, but life goes on throughout it the same as it always has.
Barbara Noble herself lived and worked in London throughout the was, and her experiences give the novel a sense of immediacy that I haven't come across in other novels set during the Blitz.
Elizabeth is working as a secretary in wartime London and having an affair with her married boss. In the house opposite, Owen, 18 years old, has finished school and is waiting to be called up, when he hopes to join the RAF. Their lives start to intertwine as the blitz goes on and friendships are formed, particularly between Elizabeth and Owen as they talk while on Fire-watch and begin to understand each other much better. Their hopes and fears are the same then, as they could be for people living now, but heightened. The blitz is something that is put up with, but life goes on throughout it the same as it always has.
Barbara Noble herself lived and worked in London throughout the was, and her experiences give the novel a sense of immediacy that I haven't come across in other novels set during the Blitz.
September 12, 2020
One of the best novels I've read on the lives of ordinary Londoners during the Blitz. There are no Lords, Duchesses or other aristocrats here. Instead we follow the lives of secretaries, solicitors, housewives and students coping with the usual life challenges whilst dealing with the harrowing nightly raids of incendiaries, time bombs and landmines. A most enjoyable and illuminating read. Cheers!
December 27, 2025
I find much to admire and celebrate in this book. It's the most convincing and true-to-life account of living through the London blitz that I've encountered in a novel. The story centers around Elizabeth Simpson, a 26 year old secretary who is involved in a lengthy affair with her married boss, and a Owen Cathcart, a sensitive, confused boy of 18 who is trying to sort out who he is and how to deal with complicated relationships. Overarching it all is the blitz, and how everyone is coping with the constant stress, danger, the uncertainty of surviving each night or finding one's place of employment standing when arriving at work each morning. Barbara Noble takes us into the nightly fire patrols, the blackout, the destruction, displacement, subway platforms that have become instant dormitories, the experiences of scarcely prepared young women pressed into service at hospital wards dealing with the daily toll of mangled bodies and traumatized children.
For me, the highlight of the story was a deeply moving conversation between Owen Cathcart and Henry Simpson, Elizabeth's father. Owen, who has been essentially fatherless, discovers in Henry a man who understands him and does not judge him. An astonishing piece of writing.
For me, the highlight of the story was a deeply moving conversation between Owen Cathcart and Henry Simpson, Elizabeth's father. Owen, who has been essentially fatherless, discovers in Henry a man who understands him and does not judge him. An astonishing piece of writing.
November 3, 2020
Barbara Noble isn’t a name I’d ever heard mentioned until very recently. Her novel The House Opposite, published in 1943, tells of two very ordinary families living across the street from each other in a very ordinary London suburb. Every day, Elizabeth Simpson, a woman in her late twenties, takes the train and tube to her work as a secretary in Soho Square; meanwhile, Owen Cathcart, aged eighteen, goes for maths tutoring and reads Proust while waiting to be called up for military service. At night, the two of them are often together as fire wardens – for it’s wartime, and the Blitz is pouring bombs down on London.
In many ways this is an unpretentious novel, not especially ambitious in a literary way, and could have been just another cosy read, evoking the kind of WW2 nostalgia beloved by editors of British magazines for the older reader. But the author takes on some stickier issues. Elizabeth is three years into an affair with her married boss and increasingly realizes that something has changed; Owen is obsessed with anxieties about his sexuality (although the word ‘homosexual’ is never written, the source of his worries is made perfectly clear). And they are not alone in having secrets: each of the characters in the two families has one, past or present – a drinking habit, an illegitimate child, guilt feelings about a friend’s suicide, black market crime.
Whatever we feel about the way Noble resolves the various issues – not always in accordance with twenty-first-century expectations – she explores the lives of these unexceptional people in exceptional times with a clear eye and usually with sympathy. We are made aware of how these lives are changed – the weariness of having to do a day’s work after having been up half the night, shaken by the impact of bombs and the noise of the guns, or having had to put out dangerous fires or just sitting in a cold shed for hours waiting for something to do. We are taken into a hospital to which a large number of casualties have been brought after the explosion of a land mine and see through Elizabeth’s unprepared eyes the horrific injuries suffered by girls and young women along with the inadequacies of the available treatments. We witness the destruction of much of the West End and the nauseating smell of the crowds who’ve taken refuge in the Underground. And we also see how lives are unchanged, how petty everyday concerns reassert themselves almost as soon as the All Clear sounds.
Noble’s central characters are explored in all their weaknesses as well as strengths, but I did find in the novel a reminder that normally unheroic people can often endure terrible things. The young may find war exciting; more mature adults face the unrelenting danger and death with a kind of resigned courage and determination. And when Owen says, ‘People will remember our generation and be proud of us’, we know he isn’t boasting or exaggerating. (How, I wonder, will they remember ours?)
In many ways this is an unpretentious novel, not especially ambitious in a literary way, and could have been just another cosy read, evoking the kind of WW2 nostalgia beloved by editors of British magazines for the older reader. But the author takes on some stickier issues. Elizabeth is three years into an affair with her married boss and increasingly realizes that something has changed; Owen is obsessed with anxieties about his sexuality (although the word ‘homosexual’ is never written, the source of his worries is made perfectly clear). And they are not alone in having secrets: each of the characters in the two families has one, past or present – a drinking habit, an illegitimate child, guilt feelings about a friend’s suicide, black market crime.
Whatever we feel about the way Noble resolves the various issues – not always in accordance with twenty-first-century expectations – she explores the lives of these unexceptional people in exceptional times with a clear eye and usually with sympathy. We are made aware of how these lives are changed – the weariness of having to do a day’s work after having been up half the night, shaken by the impact of bombs and the noise of the guns, or having had to put out dangerous fires or just sitting in a cold shed for hours waiting for something to do. We are taken into a hospital to which a large number of casualties have been brought after the explosion of a land mine and see through Elizabeth’s unprepared eyes the horrific injuries suffered by girls and young women along with the inadequacies of the available treatments. We witness the destruction of much of the West End and the nauseating smell of the crowds who’ve taken refuge in the Underground. And we also see how lives are unchanged, how petty everyday concerns reassert themselves almost as soon as the All Clear sounds.
Noble’s central characters are explored in all their weaknesses as well as strengths, but I did find in the novel a reminder that normally unheroic people can often endure terrible things. The young may find war exciting; more mature adults face the unrelenting danger and death with a kind of resigned courage and determination. And when Owen says, ‘People will remember our generation and be proud of us’, we know he isn’t boasting or exaggerating. (How, I wonder, will they remember ours?)
April 30, 2025
I read on a blog about someone's top 10 Furrowed Middlebrow picks. This book was one of her picks. I normally wouldn't read a book that has a character having an affair because I have no respect or interest in the subject matter. However, this book detailed the aerial bombardment of London during the Blitz, which I was interested in reading more about.
This book centers around secretary Elizabeth Simpson, who is having an affair with her married boss. A secondary character is teen Owen Cathcart, a strange loner with a grudge against Elizabeth. A tertiary character is soldier Bob Craven, a foil Elizabeth uses to disguise her illicit affair.
I didn't particularly enjoy the affair storyline, particularly because the relationship was so dysfunctional and disrespectful to Elizabeth's boss's wife. I learned a lot about the Blitz. I found it fascinating how citizens in London could literally "keep calm and carry on," sometimes not even bothering to go down to the bomb shelters, especially when the alarms went off several times a day. I don't know how anyone could get any work done with all of the work interruptions. It is still amazing how blase some citizens could be. The descriptions of the nightly bombing of homes was terrifying and the explanation of Elizabeth's mom getting drunk before bed to calm her nerves made me feel bad for the unending anxiety some people who remained in London throughout the Blitz must have felt.
This was a memorable and enlightening read.
3.5 stars
This book centers around secretary Elizabeth Simpson, who is having an affair with her married boss. A secondary character is teen Owen Cathcart, a strange loner with a grudge against Elizabeth. A tertiary character is soldier Bob Craven, a foil Elizabeth uses to disguise her illicit affair.
I didn't particularly enjoy the affair storyline, particularly because the relationship was so dysfunctional and disrespectful to Elizabeth's boss's wife. I learned a lot about the Blitz. I found it fascinating how citizens in London could literally "keep calm and carry on," sometimes not even bothering to go down to the bomb shelters, especially when the alarms went off several times a day. I don't know how anyone could get any work done with all of the work interruptions. It is still amazing how blase some citizens could be. The descriptions of the nightly bombing of homes was terrifying and the explanation of Elizabeth's mom getting drunk before bed to calm her nerves made me feel bad for the unending anxiety some people who remained in London throughout the Blitz must have felt.
This was a memorable and enlightening read.
3.5 stars
September 24, 2019
A wonderful book. It portrays the intertwined lives of a group of people living through the Blitz, with relationships and understandings forged under duress, heightened emotions, and at the same time simply the mundane daily grind of danger and shortages. It felt incredibly real and immediate. Another winner from Furrowed Middlebrow and Dean Street Press.
August 21, 2020
Wow wow wow. I devoured this book and I found it comforting and inspiring to read about people living through the blitz while we are currently in the midst of this pandemic. I did not know of this author but am thrilled my mom introduced me to her.
July 6, 2023
3.5 Stars
Touching; an authentic portrait of the time. Descriptions of the Blitz and how civilians dealt with the fear, disruption, and chaos, are vivid, clearly coming from first hand experience.
I loved sections of this book, particularly those about the brooding Owen, kind Daisy, or wise Harry Simpson. On the other hand, the relationship between Elizabeth and Alex Foster was a total snore. Their affair, so full of illicit potential, was utterly banal. I had to fight to keep myself from skimming their scenes. Fortunately, the rest of the book makes up for their deficiencies.
Touching; an authentic portrait of the time. Descriptions of the Blitz and how civilians dealt with the fear, disruption, and chaos, are vivid, clearly coming from first hand experience.
I loved sections of this book, particularly those about the brooding Owen, kind Daisy, or wise Harry Simpson. On the other hand, the relationship between Elizabeth and Alex Foster was a total snore. Their affair, so full of illicit potential, was utterly banal. I had to fight to keep myself from skimming their scenes. Fortunately, the rest of the book makes up for their deficiencies.
October 25, 2020
Most novels about all aspects of WW II are historical fiction. The House Opposite was published in 1943, and so it is actually a contemporary novel about Londoners during the war, which is ongoing, blackout nights, German planes overhead, bombs, other incendiary devices and yet people still keep on with their days, going to work, going out, trying to figure themselves out, signing up for the night watches, dealing with the devastation all around them. On a suburban block just outside London, two families live across the street from one another - the Simpsons in one, comprised of Henry and his wife Alice, and their daughter, Elizabeth, a secretary at an export firm, in her late twenties, in a three year love affair with the one of the owners who is married with children, and the Cathcarts in the other, Lionel who is taking advantage of the black market, his wife Daisy, who's had a secret for years, and their 18 year-old son Owen. Strange perhaps to say about a book set in this time, but it was both charming and engrossing.
July 11, 2020
Barbara Noble wrote 5 novels between 1930 and 1952. The House Opposite is the first I have read and it was gripping from the very first. What was life like during the Blitz for those who tried to carry on amidst all the wreckage and heartbreak? A blurb on the front of the book says, "Wholly admirable...unadorned...disturbing." Yes, the Blitz hovers over all, but relationships carry on and are redefined and people discover shortcomings and virtues in one another they did not imagine before. Ms Noble presents her characters compassionately but does not stint on troubling truths that arise. It is beautifully written and I could hardly put it down.
June 18, 2020
What a wonderful book. Written during WW2, this book covers two families who live opposite each other in a Suburban London street. Without sensationalism it covers the various,and often fragile, relationships of the people involved. I think that this book must surely come as close as we can now get to what every day was like for ordinary people during the war. I would recommend.
May 2, 2021
Everything threatened change, at a time when one's instinct was to cling desperately to the accustomed and the routine. The world rocked, buildings and lives collapsed, yet as long as one could add up figures in the same ledger, measure out material on the same counter, wash the same kitchen floor, one could endure.
Reading this 1943 book in the year 2021, I had an unavoidable, slightly narcissistic desire to compare those past upheavals to the present one. "In these unprecedented times..." has become such a mantra that it's illuminating to see how, in some ways, these times very much do have precedents. Of course, a pandemic and a war are very different, but the emotions that they cast over life - anxiety, shock, exhaustion, denial, boredom, occasional bizarre humor - have a lot of common ground. Additionally, neither is capable of fully smothering the human concerns that existed before them and will persist long after: parents wanting to help their children but knowing that their power is limited; people performing the delicate, unintuitive work of keeping secrets; neighbors worrying about what each other think. It is this focus on everyday events - and how they are shaped, but not diminished, by the world-changing big picture - that makes this book compelling.
It focuses on, and was published during, the Blitz in London. There's a constant undercurrent of uncertainty; each night could bring the destruction of your friend's house, or of your own. Or you could both come through unscathed, and by daylight see strangers' homes torn open to expose their most personal artifacts to the world. This unreliability of the boundary between the private and the public - and between life and death - is a concern that weighs on many of the characters' minds. To cope with the shadow that hangs over them, characters occupy themselves in different ways: by maintaining an unfounded confidence that it won't happen to them, by scheming to profit off the situation, or by analyzing the path the world took to reach such a state. While the ending felt a little too soap-opera to me , overall I was fascinated by the mosaic of multiple points of view, revealing how each character's actions were perceived by others.
Reading this 1943 book in the year 2021, I had an unavoidable, slightly narcissistic desire to compare those past upheavals to the present one. "In these unprecedented times..." has become such a mantra that it's illuminating to see how, in some ways, these times very much do have precedents. Of course, a pandemic and a war are very different, but the emotions that they cast over life - anxiety, shock, exhaustion, denial, boredom, occasional bizarre humor - have a lot of common ground. Additionally, neither is capable of fully smothering the human concerns that existed before them and will persist long after: parents wanting to help their children but knowing that their power is limited; people performing the delicate, unintuitive work of keeping secrets; neighbors worrying about what each other think. It is this focus on everyday events - and how they are shaped, but not diminished, by the world-changing big picture - that makes this book compelling.
It focuses on, and was published during, the Blitz in London. There's a constant undercurrent of uncertainty; each night could bring the destruction of your friend's house, or of your own. Or you could both come through unscathed, and by daylight see strangers' homes torn open to expose their most personal artifacts to the world. This unreliability of the boundary between the private and the public - and between life and death - is a concern that weighs on many of the characters' minds. To cope with the shadow that hangs over them, characters occupy themselves in different ways: by maintaining an unfounded confidence that it won't happen to them, by scheming to profit off the situation, or by analyzing the path the world took to reach such a state. While the ending felt a little too soap-opera to me , overall I was fascinated by the mosaic of multiple points of view, revealing how each character's actions were perceived by others.
August 29, 2021
4.5 stars.
Loved this book. Set in London against the backdrop of the Blitz, we follow a cast of characters trying to live ordinary lives in between air raids and bombings. They worry about illicit affairs, money, and issues otherwise considered "trivial" when compared to the war. The war itself is a sort of character and is definitely harrowing but never in a melodramatic way. Barbara Noble creates an atmosphere of tension so subtly that even the most casual and innocuous scenes make you nervous. But the gloom of the Blitz is tempered by the intimate relationships at the heart of this book, namely an unlikely friendship and that between a parent and their child. There is also a coming-of-age "B" story which I thought rather beautiful.
Loved this book. Set in London against the backdrop of the Blitz, we follow a cast of characters trying to live ordinary lives in between air raids and bombings. They worry about illicit affairs, money, and issues otherwise considered "trivial" when compared to the war. The war itself is a sort of character and is definitely harrowing but never in a melodramatic way. Barbara Noble creates an atmosphere of tension so subtly that even the most casual and innocuous scenes make you nervous. But the gloom of the Blitz is tempered by the intimate relationships at the heart of this book, namely an unlikely friendship and that between a parent and their child. There is also a coming-of-age "B" story which I thought rather beautiful.
June 20, 2020
Some may find the writing style a little dated but it is a great little book.
A book about the blitz..yes..but also about growing up. Really a tale of Everyman
A book about the blitz..yes..but also about growing up. Really a tale of Everyman
April 27, 2024
A rare miss in the Furrowed Middlebrow / Dean Street Press collaboration. The characters are not likeable, it's more open about adultery and other personal issues (right down to one character being miserable for YEARS that someone called him "that pansy boy") than most fiction of the era (originally published 1943), and while the description of Londoners in the Blitz is always a fascinating read, I found myself rather hoping some of these characters wouldn't survive, which is an uncomfortable feeling.
But, beyond all that, is the absolutely insufferable introduction by Connie Willis. Now, I know Willis has her fans and has won awards for her sci fi / time travel stories. But...I am NOT a fan. Blackout is hundreds of pages too long and the writing is actually (hot take coming): terrible. POV shifts, grammatical errors, etc. I honestly don't know how some people recommend it.
So that's bad enough, but Connie Willis, an American born in 1945 (imagine that part in all caps, it's important) presumes to tell readers that she knows more about what living in the Blitz in London in 1940 was like than people WHO ACTUALLY LIVED THROUGH IT. Does she think that time machine she writes about is real? I mean, COME ON. The following is a quote from her introduction:
Great googly moogly, that's some authorial hubris if I've ever seen any.
I stayed up too late finishing this one and I want my hours back. And I also want to never read anything - whether novel, essay, or social media post - by Connie Willis ever again.
But, beyond all that, is the absolutely insufferable introduction by Connie Willis. Now, I know Willis has her fans and has won awards for her sci fi / time travel stories. But...I am NOT a fan. Blackout is hundreds of pages too long and the writing is actually (hot take coming): terrible. POV shifts, grammatical errors, etc. I honestly don't know how some people recommend it.
So that's bad enough, but Connie Willis, an American born in 1945 (imagine that part in all caps, it's important) presumes to tell readers that she knows more about what living in the Blitz in London in 1940 was like than people WHO ACTUALLY LIVED THROUGH IT. Does she think that time machine she writes about is real? I mean, COME ON. The following is a quote from her introduction:
I dislike most novels written about the Blitz. Most authors get the details, or worse, the attitudes of the time wrong...This is true not only of books written today but also those who experienced the Blitz first-hand, which proves that just because someone lives through something, it doesn't mean they know anything about it. In fact, the reverse is often true.
I can only think of two movies and two books which, till now, have gotten the particulars, the tone, and the story of the Blitz right.
Great googly moogly, that's some authorial hubris if I've ever seen any.
I stayed up too late finishing this one and I want my hours back. And I also want to never read anything - whether novel, essay, or social media post - by Connie Willis ever again.
December 13, 2023
One of my favorite writers, Connie Willis, wrote the forward for this newest edition of The House Opposite. I'm pretty sure I also saw another of my favorite authors, Jo Walton, recommend this on her monthly reading list, and those two recommendations were enough to make me pick this up for my 1943 read this year. This is the story of ordinary Londoners going about their lives during the Blitz. The plot is mostly focused on two people who live across the street from each other: Elizabeth, a secretary having an affair with her married boss, and Owen, an 18-year-old who is struggling with his sense of self and has a rocky relationship with his father. There's no one thing that made this book five stars for me; rather, the whole book is both completely ordinary and extraordinary at the same time, and I couldn't put it down. Noble herself lived and worked in London throughout the Blitz, and the novel resounds with authenticity. It was easy to feel a little frustrated with Elizabeth's choices at times, but she was such a relatable and well-written character. I loved the way Noble grew her characters in a natural progression throughout the book. I hope more people pick up this gem of a novel.
*1943 pick for my century reading project 1921-2020
*1943 pick for my century reading project 1921-2020
July 6, 2024
In the midst of the London Blitz, two young people are absorbed with their win problems. Elizabeth Simpson, a secretary, is having a secret affair with her married boss. Owen Cathcart, who lives across the road from Elizabeth, has left school and is waiting to be called up, while being tormented by anxiety about his own sexuality. We see the Blitz through the eyes of theses two characters, as they struggle to work out their own problems. Elizabeth’s father is kind and wise, her mother selfish and neurotic. Owen’s mother is kind and generous, his father is a bit dodgy. Elizabeth seems a bit naive at times, but the relationship that develops between her and Owen is more interesting than the details of her rather boring love affair. This is a very good story for showing how life went on despite the bombs.
April 20, 2022
Another war book written by a woman in 1943, it’s a fascinating look at the home front even though it was hard to like the characters. Elizabeth and Alex are both pretty unlikeable selfish people, and it’s hard to get attached to Owen as he flips character part way through and I am not sure that was a coming of age thing.
July 28, 2025
I adore the Dean Street Press Books! But this one missed the mark! The characters and the story was just flat.
July 4, 2021
A book written about life in London in 1943 will probably make some reference to the Blitz. In this powerful novel the bombing is a theme, constantly in the background, explaining and justifying what the characters do, how they live. There is no melodrama, but an acceptance that life is affected, that fear affects people in different ways, that people behave differently when there is real danger. This exceptional book has been made available by the brilliant Dean Street Press, as chosen to be part of the wonderful Furrowed Middlebrow series. Connie Willis in her Introduction points out that Noble gets the Blitz right, in the facts, the atmosphere and the little details. I found it an incredible read, documenting the telling experience, the way that people fight to get on with their lives in the best way that they can, subject to the same emotions as people everywhere at any time. It is a book that speaks of first hand experience, and I was very pleased to have the opportunity to read and review this special book.
Elizabeth is a secretary who is having an affair with her married boss. Alex’s wife and children are in the country, evacuated away from the nightly bombing raids that give a certain desperation to Elizabeth’s thoughts about the man who she is secretly so attached to, the man she calls on the phone to check has survived, before adopting her role as the efficient Miss Simpson. Her loving father, solicitor and warden, has a huge potential for understanding, for coping, but her mother is terrified of the raids, fearful of being alone, and discovers some comfort in concealed alcohol. Elizabeth is coping, but feels a sort of guilt about Bob, a soldier who devotes his precious leave to her, unaware of her true feelings. Meanwhile Owen, who lives in the house opposite, is an insecure teenager who recoils from an flippant statement from her, that he is “Only that pansy Cathcart boy”. At eighteen he is wounded by her dismissal, but also by his own reactions, aware of his devotion to an older cousin, Derek, who was a schoolboy hero and protector, now in the glamorous air force, training to be a pilot. Derek was the shining sportsman, the instinctive leader, whereas Owen was the younger, bookish and only son of a mother who nurses a life changing secret. As he struggles with his feelings, he is fascinated by the damage, the excitement of a city in peril, the physical evidence of which could be collected. While Elizabeth does not fear for her own physical safety, she knows that others ar losing everything and injured in horrifying ways, while she has accepted a secret relationship that brings her little joy and knows is tainted by a lack of a future. Alex’s claim to fear about the raids is set alongside the fact that when they leave London for a snatched weekend, they fear discovery “They were both of them secretly apprehensive all the time”. The bombing is almost a relief - it frees Elizabeth from worrying about a future that may never come for her.
There is so much to admire about this book, the grim tolerance of destruction, the curiosity of where the bombs had fallen, the passing on of rumour and fact. The relief of surviving another night is set against the realities of others’ probable losses. It reveals and explains how people had to carry on with their own lives against constant uncertainty, how fear became a constant, tolerated as the immediate had to be dealt with on a daily basis. It is a revelation of how people truly responded to the times, and how life continued. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in first hand accounts of how people lived in a novel written and originally published without the benefit of knowing what the future would hold.
Elizabeth is a secretary who is having an affair with her married boss. Alex’s wife and children are in the country, evacuated away from the nightly bombing raids that give a certain desperation to Elizabeth’s thoughts about the man who she is secretly so attached to, the man she calls on the phone to check has survived, before adopting her role as the efficient Miss Simpson. Her loving father, solicitor and warden, has a huge potential for understanding, for coping, but her mother is terrified of the raids, fearful of being alone, and discovers some comfort in concealed alcohol. Elizabeth is coping, but feels a sort of guilt about Bob, a soldier who devotes his precious leave to her, unaware of her true feelings. Meanwhile Owen, who lives in the house opposite, is an insecure teenager who recoils from an flippant statement from her, that he is “Only that pansy Cathcart boy”. At eighteen he is wounded by her dismissal, but also by his own reactions, aware of his devotion to an older cousin, Derek, who was a schoolboy hero and protector, now in the glamorous air force, training to be a pilot. Derek was the shining sportsman, the instinctive leader, whereas Owen was the younger, bookish and only son of a mother who nurses a life changing secret. As he struggles with his feelings, he is fascinated by the damage, the excitement of a city in peril, the physical evidence of which could be collected. While Elizabeth does not fear for her own physical safety, she knows that others ar losing everything and injured in horrifying ways, while she has accepted a secret relationship that brings her little joy and knows is tainted by a lack of a future. Alex’s claim to fear about the raids is set alongside the fact that when they leave London for a snatched weekend, they fear discovery “They were both of them secretly apprehensive all the time”. The bombing is almost a relief - it frees Elizabeth from worrying about a future that may never come for her.
There is so much to admire about this book, the grim tolerance of destruction, the curiosity of where the bombs had fallen, the passing on of rumour and fact. The relief of surviving another night is set against the realities of others’ probable losses. It reveals and explains how people had to carry on with their own lives against constant uncertainty, how fear became a constant, tolerated as the immediate had to be dealt with on a daily basis. It is a revelation of how people truly responded to the times, and how life continued. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in first hand accounts of how people lived in a novel written and originally published without the benefit of knowing what the future would hold.
August 8, 2021
I read this book with no great expectations but because I like books about that time period and I also liked the cover (that sums up how deeply I think about what to read).
Well, I was in for a bit of a surprise. When I started it I thought I’d just get some straight-laced story of a doomed love affair, lots of stiff upper lips about the bombing and possibly frequent references to cups of tea. It was far more nuanced than that.
The book centres around two characters; Elizabeth who is having an affair with her boss. Although the story of their relationship didn’t cover new territory, the author’s description of how Elizabeth felt, not just about the affair but about everything to do with the war, was sharp and extremely perceptive. I read it thinking that’s exactly how I’d think if I was in the same situation. Not that I’ve ever had an affair with my boss but still, you never know…
The other character is Owen an 18 year old boy waiting to be called up and who is in love with his male cousin. Again, I was completely taken aback that homosexuality was written about so openly in those days. I should probably mention here that the book was published in 1943 (although is that’s just me showing my ignorance I’ll hope you’ll forgive me). Again I thought this was handled with gentleness and with sharp perception.
If you want a frank novel about what it was like to live through the blitz this is the book for you. I will never know what it was really like but Barbara Noble’s excellent descriptions of day to day living for normal people resonated and made me glad I was yet to be born.
Well, I was in for a bit of a surprise. When I started it I thought I’d just get some straight-laced story of a doomed love affair, lots of stiff upper lips about the bombing and possibly frequent references to cups of tea. It was far more nuanced than that.
The book centres around two characters; Elizabeth who is having an affair with her boss. Although the story of their relationship didn’t cover new territory, the author’s description of how Elizabeth felt, not just about the affair but about everything to do with the war, was sharp and extremely perceptive. I read it thinking that’s exactly how I’d think if I was in the same situation. Not that I’ve ever had an affair with my boss but still, you never know…
The other character is Owen an 18 year old boy waiting to be called up and who is in love with his male cousin. Again, I was completely taken aback that homosexuality was written about so openly in those days. I should probably mention here that the book was published in 1943 (although is that’s just me showing my ignorance I’ll hope you’ll forgive me). Again I thought this was handled with gentleness and with sharp perception.
If you want a frank novel about what it was like to live through the blitz this is the book for you. I will never know what it was really like but Barbara Noble’s excellent descriptions of day to day living for normal people resonated and made me glad I was yet to be born.
March 3, 2020
I enjoyed reading this book for its authentic view of the life in London during the Blitz, and for its sophisticated central character. Life, love, gossip, shopping, family, neighbors all affected by the danger and need to carry on.
August 13, 2020
Brill. The Blitz in real time.
Read
January 1, 2021My second Barbara Noble. A brilliant read about life during the Blitz. Lovely writing, great story.
July 1, 2021
Interesting read about life during the Blitz in London
December 23, 2025
There is often something very compelling about fiction written and published during World War II, when the outcome of the conflict raging across Europe would have been uncertain. Set during the turmoil of the London Blitz, Barbara Noble’s 1943 novel The House Opposite is one such book, a very absorbing character-driven story in which the tensions underpinning the lives of two families are contrasted with the mundanity, unpredictability and daily destruction unfolding across the city. It’s an excellent, well-written novel ideally suited to fans of Persephone Books and the British Library Women Writers series. In the UK, this novel is in print with Dean Street Press, which Liz is currently spotlighting through her DSP December event.
Noble centres her story on two main protagonists: Elizabeth Simpson, a twenty-eight-year-old secretary living at home with her parents, and Owen Cathcart, an eighteen-year-old boy whose family live in the house opposite the Simpsons’, hence the novel’s title.
Careful and self-contained by nature, Elizabeth has been embroiled in a love affair with her married boss, Alex Foster, for the past three years – a relationship that seems to be going nowhere as Alex is unwilling to leave his wife due to their children. While Alex does seem to care for Elizabeth, one gets the impression he is being rather selective with the truth, creating the impression that his relationship with wife, Naomi, is rather distant, both emotionally and physically. Naomi has moved to an Oxfordshire village with the couple’s two children, largely to escape the bombings. Consequently, during the week, Alex stays in a service flat in London, giving him plenty of opportunities to spend time with Elizabeth before travelling to Oxford to see his family at the weekends. For Elizabeth, the situation is far from ideal as she loves Alex and would like to be more than just his mistress. Nevertheless, she went into the relationship with her eyes open, and the benefits still outweigh the downsides – for now, at least.
In some respects, Owen Cathcart is the most interesting character here. Quiet and sensitive at heart, Owen is struggling to understand and reconcile the deep feelings he has for his older cousin, Derek, who is now in the RAF. The boys have spent many holidays together in the past, and Owen has developed something of a crush on Derek, whom he plans to follow by joining up. Noble excels at capturing the maelstrom of emotions Owen experiences as he wrestles with his sexuality, highlighting the uncertainty, embarrassment and self-loathing that accompany some of the joy.
He was overwhelmed once more with all the symptoms of acute neurosis which had tormented him so recently—self-disgust, terrified and terrifying ignorance, above all, a loneliness of spirit which made him sometimes want to beat his head against a wall. Everyone but himself, and an unnumbered, faceless, untouchable horde of others like himself, walked in light and fellowship; only he and his kind crawled miserably in darkness and despair. His mind could evoke nothing but images of separation, which cut him off from ordinary, normal people, the fortunate ones, the well-beloved. Most of all, he knew, he was cut off from Derek. Derek would not understand at all. He would be incredulous, embarrassed, concerned and utterly uncomprehending if Owen were ever to try to explain. (pp. 68-69)
Owen has taken a dislike to Elizabeth, having overheard her referring to him with an unfortunate turn of phrase which seemed to raise questions about his sexuality. For her part, Elizabeth considers Owen uncommunicative and ‘wet’, which makes the prospect of sharing Sunday night fire-watching duties with him very unappealing. Nevertheless, as these weekly sessions unfold, Elizabeth and Owen get to know one another a lot better, opening their eyes to the realities of their own lives and those around them. In particular, Owen becomes aware that Elizabeth is in an illicit relationship with Alex – probably a troublesome one – which evokes in him new feelings of sympathy and concern for her happiness.
To read the rest of my review, please visit:
https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025...
Noble centres her story on two main protagonists: Elizabeth Simpson, a twenty-eight-year-old secretary living at home with her parents, and Owen Cathcart, an eighteen-year-old boy whose family live in the house opposite the Simpsons’, hence the novel’s title.
Careful and self-contained by nature, Elizabeth has been embroiled in a love affair with her married boss, Alex Foster, for the past three years – a relationship that seems to be going nowhere as Alex is unwilling to leave his wife due to their children. While Alex does seem to care for Elizabeth, one gets the impression he is being rather selective with the truth, creating the impression that his relationship with wife, Naomi, is rather distant, both emotionally and physically. Naomi has moved to an Oxfordshire village with the couple’s two children, largely to escape the bombings. Consequently, during the week, Alex stays in a service flat in London, giving him plenty of opportunities to spend time with Elizabeth before travelling to Oxford to see his family at the weekends. For Elizabeth, the situation is far from ideal as she loves Alex and would like to be more than just his mistress. Nevertheless, she went into the relationship with her eyes open, and the benefits still outweigh the downsides – for now, at least.
In some respects, Owen Cathcart is the most interesting character here. Quiet and sensitive at heart, Owen is struggling to understand and reconcile the deep feelings he has for his older cousin, Derek, who is now in the RAF. The boys have spent many holidays together in the past, and Owen has developed something of a crush on Derek, whom he plans to follow by joining up. Noble excels at capturing the maelstrom of emotions Owen experiences as he wrestles with his sexuality, highlighting the uncertainty, embarrassment and self-loathing that accompany some of the joy.
He was overwhelmed once more with all the symptoms of acute neurosis which had tormented him so recently—self-disgust, terrified and terrifying ignorance, above all, a loneliness of spirit which made him sometimes want to beat his head against a wall. Everyone but himself, and an unnumbered, faceless, untouchable horde of others like himself, walked in light and fellowship; only he and his kind crawled miserably in darkness and despair. His mind could evoke nothing but images of separation, which cut him off from ordinary, normal people, the fortunate ones, the well-beloved. Most of all, he knew, he was cut off from Derek. Derek would not understand at all. He would be incredulous, embarrassed, concerned and utterly uncomprehending if Owen were ever to try to explain. (pp. 68-69)
Owen has taken a dislike to Elizabeth, having overheard her referring to him with an unfortunate turn of phrase which seemed to raise questions about his sexuality. For her part, Elizabeth considers Owen uncommunicative and ‘wet’, which makes the prospect of sharing Sunday night fire-watching duties with him very unappealing. Nevertheless, as these weekly sessions unfold, Elizabeth and Owen get to know one another a lot better, opening their eyes to the realities of their own lives and those around them. In particular, Owen becomes aware that Elizabeth is in an illicit relationship with Alex – probably a troublesome one – which evokes in him new feelings of sympathy and concern for her happiness.
To read the rest of my review, please visit:
https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025...
Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews