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Rose, 1944
Helen Dunmore writes poetry, short stories and novels both for children and adults and she has received widespread acclaim for her work. All ten books of her adult fiction have been published by Penguin, and in Rose, 1944, we present several short stories that reveal the range, intricacy and depth found in one of modern fiction's great lyrical voices.
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
55 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
1 person is currently reading
82 people want to read
About the author
Helen Dunmore
117 books971 followersI was born in December 1952, in Yorkshire, the second of four children. My father was the eldest of twelve, and this extended family has no doubt had a strong influence on my life, as have my own children. In a large family you hear a great many stories. You also come to understand very early that stories hold quite different meanings for different listeners, and can be recast from many viewpoints.
Poetry was very important to me from childhood. I began by listening to and learning by heart all kinds of rhymes and hymns and ballads, and then went on to make up my own poems, using the forms I’d heard. Writing these down came a little later.
I studied English at the University of York, and after graduation taught English as a foreign language in Finland.
At around this time I began to write the poems which formed my first poetry collection, The Apple Fall, and to publish these in magazines. I also completed two novels; fortunately neither survives, and it was more than ten years before I wrote another novel.
During this time I published several collections of poems, and wrote some of the short stories which were later collected in Love of Fat Men. I began to travel a great deal within the UK and around the world, for poetry tours and writing residences. This experience of working in many different countries and cultures has been very important to my work. I reviewed poetry for Stand and Poetry Review and later for The Observer, and subsequently reviewed fiction for The Observer, The Times and The Guardian. My critical work includes introductions to the poems of Emily Brontë, the short stories of D H Lawrence and F Scott Fitzgerald, a study of Virginia Woolf’s relationships with women and Introductions to the Folio Society's edition of Anna Karenina and to the new Penguin Classics edition of Tolstoy's My Confession.
During the 1980s and early 1990s I taught poetry and creative writing, tutored residential writing courses for the Arvon Foundation and took part in the Poetry Society's Writer in Schools scheme, as well as giving readings and workshops in schools, hospitals, prisons and every other kind of place where a poem could conceivably be welcome. I also taught at the University of Glamorgan, the University of Bristol's Continuing Education Department and for the Open College of the Arts.
In the late 1980s I began to publish short stories, and these were the beginning of a breakthrough into fiction. What I had learned of prose technique through the short story gave me the impetus to start writing novels. My first novel for children was Going to Egypt, published in 1992, and my first novel for adults was Zennor in Darkness, published in 1993, which won the McKitterick Prize. This was also my first researched novel, set in the First World War and dealing with the period when D H Lawrence and his wife Frieda lived in Zennor in Cornwall, and came under suspicion as German spies.
My third novel, A Spell of Winter, won the inaugural Orange Prize for Fiction in 1996, and since then I have published a number of novels, short story collections and books for children. Full details of all these books are available on this website. The last of The Ingo Quartet, The Crossing of Ingo, was published in paperback in Spring 2009.
My seventh novel, The Siege (2001) was shortlisted both for the Whitbread Novel Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction. This was another researched novel, which grew from a lifelong love of Russian history, culture and literature. It is is set in Leningrad during the first year of the siege of the city by German forces, which lasted for 880 days from the fall of Mga on 30th August 1941. The Siege has been translated into Russian by Tatyana Averchina, and extracts have been broadcast on radio in St Petersburg. House of Orphans was published in 2006, and in 2008 Counting the Stars. Its central characters are the Roman poet Catullus, who lived during the last years of the Republic,
Poetry was very important to me from childhood. I began by listening to and learning by heart all kinds of rhymes and hymns and ballads, and then went on to make up my own poems, using the forms I’d heard. Writing these down came a little later.
I studied English at the University of York, and after graduation taught English as a foreign language in Finland.
At around this time I began to write the poems which formed my first poetry collection, The Apple Fall, and to publish these in magazines. I also completed two novels; fortunately neither survives, and it was more than ten years before I wrote another novel.
During this time I published several collections of poems, and wrote some of the short stories which were later collected in Love of Fat Men. I began to travel a great deal within the UK and around the world, for poetry tours and writing residences. This experience of working in many different countries and cultures has been very important to my work. I reviewed poetry for Stand and Poetry Review and later for The Observer, and subsequently reviewed fiction for The Observer, The Times and The Guardian. My critical work includes introductions to the poems of Emily Brontë, the short stories of D H Lawrence and F Scott Fitzgerald, a study of Virginia Woolf’s relationships with women and Introductions to the Folio Society's edition of Anna Karenina and to the new Penguin Classics edition of Tolstoy's My Confession.
During the 1980s and early 1990s I taught poetry and creative writing, tutored residential writing courses for the Arvon Foundation and took part in the Poetry Society's Writer in Schools scheme, as well as giving readings and workshops in schools, hospitals, prisons and every other kind of place where a poem could conceivably be welcome. I also taught at the University of Glamorgan, the University of Bristol's Continuing Education Department and for the Open College of the Arts.
In the late 1980s I began to publish short stories, and these were the beginning of a breakthrough into fiction. What I had learned of prose technique through the short story gave me the impetus to start writing novels. My first novel for children was Going to Egypt, published in 1992, and my first novel for adults was Zennor in Darkness, published in 1993, which won the McKitterick Prize. This was also my first researched novel, set in the First World War and dealing with the period when D H Lawrence and his wife Frieda lived in Zennor in Cornwall, and came under suspicion as German spies.
My third novel, A Spell of Winter, won the inaugural Orange Prize for Fiction in 1996, and since then I have published a number of novels, short story collections and books for children. Full details of all these books are available on this website. The last of The Ingo Quartet, The Crossing of Ingo, was published in paperback in Spring 2009.
My seventh novel, The Siege (2001) was shortlisted both for the Whitbread Novel Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction. This was another researched novel, which grew from a lifelong love of Russian history, culture and literature. It is is set in Leningrad during the first year of the siege of the city by German forces, which lasted for 880 days from the fall of Mga on 30th August 1941. The Siege has been translated into Russian by Tatyana Averchina, and extracts have been broadcast on radio in St Petersburg. House of Orphans was published in 2006, and in 2008 Counting the Stars. Its central characters are the Roman poet Catullus, who lived during the last years of the Republic,
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 16, 2021
This was so hard to go through, most of these stories were really boring. I really liked the second story but everything went downhill from there.
April 10, 2018
My first Dunmore, but it won't be my last. This short collection of four short stories is a quick read with a lot of depth, with the titular story being especially moving. I expect this edition will be out of print now (it was published as part of a series for Penguin's 70th anniversary), but if Dunmore's other short story collections, novels, and poetry are as good as these, I would absolutely recommend her writing.
December 19, 2022
Quite a discovery for me. Sensitive, subtle, precise though made more from hints than assumptions: very finely woven prose for these moving novels.
October 30, 2023
What a little gem this is. Just four stories - short stories: the whole book only runs to 55 pages. Each one so different, so tender, each one with the capacity to quietly shock. I don't want to say any more. If you pick up this small book, keep it to read at some quiet time when you can savour every word.
January 31, 2023
A selection of 4 short stories. Rose, 1944 was particularly moving
March 26, 2025
Just OK. Not as good as her novels.
October 28, 2012
2006 bookcrossing review:
I am going through a spell of reading A LOT of short stories. I enjoyed this book. Didn't always quite get what the meaning, if there was one, was with some of the stories. On the whole, they were quite sad, especially the title story Rose, 1944 which had to be my favourite from this little volume.
I am going through a spell of reading A LOT of short stories. I enjoyed this book. Didn't always quite get what the meaning, if there was one, was with some of the stories. On the whole, they were quite sad, especially the title story Rose, 1944 which had to be my favourite from this little volume.
July 15, 2016
This was really quite a nice little gem containing four short stories by Helen Dunmore. I thought I knew where the first short story was going but I so didn't see the end coming. The third story about a mastectomy performed in the 18th century had me wincing...
August 3, 2011
Four excellent short stories that cover the important issues of racism, disability, miscarriages and terminal illness; all sensitively written and worth a look for the hour that this book will take to read.
August 30, 2015
leuke verhalen.
June 19, 2014
Wouldn't read again, most of the stories were odd and depressing.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews