Great Western Beach

by Emma Smith

Emma Smith

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Memoir, History, Autobiography

384 pages, Paperback

First published June 2, 2008

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

EMMA SMITH was born in Cornwall in 1923 and was privately educated. In 1939 she took her first job in the Records Department of the War Office before volunteering for work on the canals; this gave her the material for Maidens' Trip (1948), which won the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize. She spent the winter of 1946-7 with a documentary film unit in India and then lived in Paris and wrote The Far Cry (1949), awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for the best novel of the year in English. In 1951 Emma Smith married and had two children. After her husband's death in 1957 she went to live in rural Wales; she then published very successful children's books, short stories (one of which was runner-up in the 1951 Observer short story competition that launched the winner, Muriel Spark, on her career) and, in 1978, her novel The Opportunity of a Lifetime. Since 1980 she has lived in Putney in south-west London.

Note: Information taken from Persephone Press site: http://www.persephonebooks.co.uk/page...

Reviews

[Dorcas · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pleasant autobiography of one girl's childhood between the wars in Cornwall, England.
It was ok, but nothing very interesting happens, nor are the characters developed to the point where I cared much what happened to them. So as much as I enjoy slice-of-life stories I found this one a little bland and ultimately forgettable.
For an un-put-down-able Cornish autobiography try Emma Smith's (a different Emma Smith) " A Cornish Waif's Story". Perfection.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up “The Great Western Beach”, Emma Smith’s memoir of her Cornish childhood between the wars, with great expectations.

I had lots of reasons for optimism. I love childhood memoirs and I know Emma Smith to be a wonderful writer. She writes of Newquay, a town that I know and worked in for a short period a few years ago. It is very like the town I grew up in on the opposite coast of Cornwall and the author is of the same generation as my mother.

“The Great Western Beach” more than lived up to my expectations. It is a wonderful book.

Emma’s parents are sadly mismatched. Her father was decorated for bravery in the 1st World War, but he struggles with family life in peacetime, his job as a bank clerk and the financial constraints that imposes.

He in unkind and cruel to his wife who, having losing three fiancés to the war and fearing that she would lose her chance of a family of her own, married in haste.

Emma’s elder sister Pam copes with a mixture of bravado and secrecy, but Pam’s twin Jim is terrorised by their father, who despises the timidity that he largely creates in his son. Emma keeps her head down and is his favourite as a result, a position she is far from comfortable with.

All of this sounds dark, but one of the great strengths of this book is the empathy and understanding that Emma has for all her family. Her father is not a monster, but a flawed and unhappy man.

And there is so much light.

Emma recalls so many details of a wonderful childhood by the sea and writes of it wonderfully well.

The excitement of a trip to the cinema, the thrill of owning a motor car, the arrival of the town’s roller-skating rink, tennis parties, birthday parties and so much more. The details are packed in but the author’s skill is such that the book never feels crowded.

The family’s maid Lucy brings great warmth and Newquay’s varied array of residents and visitors are all portrayed with great charm.

And best of all, there is the beach. Emma and her siblings spent their free time on the beach, on the sands, in rock pools, swimming and surfing, shell-collecting, reading and observing life all year round. There are holiday-makers, donkeys, ice cream and deck-chairs in the summer and there is a quite magical emptiness in the winter.

Trips to the beach seem to be the times when all of the family can be happy and enjoy together.

All of this is related in wonderful clear prose, and the author balances the perspective of her chidlhood with her greater wisdom as an adult wonderfully well.

Emma’s mother receives an inheritance from an uncle and the family move to a bigger house and enjoy some financial freedom. As they advance in society more and more possibilities open to them.

Eventually though they advance right out of Newquay when Emma’s father is promoted and the family move to Plymouth. As the book ends Emma is aware that a significant part of her life is over and that she will miss in very much.

I loved this book and I miss the world it recreated now I have finished reading.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
As others have noted, Emma Smith's use of the present tense in this memoir of her childhood gives the book a vivid sense of immediacy. This is wonderful when it comes to the depiction of endless summers on the local beaches, and her interactions with her siblings. Reading this book made me feel that I've actually visited Newquay, Cornwall in the 1930s. The immediacy is less wonderful when it comes to the portrayal of her difficult father. I spent a lot of the book in sympathetic stomach clenching anxiety. For that reason, I doubt I'll ever reread it, even though I admire it as a snapshot of a long-gone time. I'm also curiously reluctant to part with my copy because I really love the dustjacket -- but I guess I can always come on goodreads to look at it.

[Sylvester (Taking a break in 2023) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read a few childhood memoirs, but this one is a little different. Smith writes in first-person present-tense, so right off there's a sense of immediacy, and she is able to show the ironies of her family life quite deftly as a result.

"Our parents are in a perpetual muddle as to where to draw the line between what to label right and what to label wrong. For the line is variable. It won't stop still. It shifts and blurs...A young woman capable of dying her hair is capable, it goes without saying, of absolutely anything. And if she considers it an improvement to pencil on eyebrows where nature never intended her to have them - well! She is, quite simply, a hussy; and very likely worse. So where does this place film stars? - Jean Harlow, for instance? Hollywood film stars, our father declares flatly (he, an ardent film fan) are all hussies, and merely prove his point."

Speaking as her childhood self, Smith ruthlessly shows her parents' flaws and hypocrisies - especially her father's. What impressed me most is how she reveals an unhappy household without affecting the happy tone of the telling.

This memoir is all about the beach. It has character and influence all its own, and shows how a place can keep a family that has nothing else in common together. How friends that come and go in the summers add to life and attitudes. And there are some odd folk around! The sisters who run the Rose Cafe and live in a railway car. The snobby folk, the beach-men who place and remove the beach chairs and shift the bathing huts up and down with the tide, the families. And then this -

"At some unrecorded time in history the projecting cliff on the opposite side of the beach to the harbour has had its tip cut off from the mainland by the sea's endlessly restless action. So there it stands today, a tall rock, the summit of which, covered in rampantly flourishing vegetation, is large enough, but only just, to accommodate the dwelling that crowns it. Everything about this miniscule island, and the house that has been built upon it, is fabulous, including its owner, Sir Oliver Lodge, an old gentleman with a long white beard, celebrated for his scientific investigations of the paranormal...like an illustration for the wizard's castle in a fairy story, there is no access to this fantastic fortress of a house other than by a spindly suspension bridge..."



I could say a lot more. It's a perfect summer read.
(Oh, I do want to mention that Smith includes 2 incidents, one about a pedophile and another about a flasher. This is going to sound crazy, but I appreciate when an autobiographer includes encounters like this - otherwise we get a warped idea about "the good old days". Smith had a narrow escape.

[Sandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a random walk by pick up book at the end of a library book sale… so glad it choose me!

Very detailed autobiography of a British childhood by the sea. Sounds idyllic, it was not, but it was impossible to put down.

The deep unhappiness of the parents was a constant cloud upon the security and foundations of their four children’s lives. It reminded me of the power parent’s wield in how they respond and process difficulties and challenges.

Emma Smith, the author, wrote it from a child’s perceptions from preschool until 12 years old. The narrative was not childish but it was grounded in her “in time and place” with a child’s understandings and bafflement’s. Her use of words and narrative was powerful.

Sad yet immensely insightful.

[Louise Culmer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Emma Smith's account of her childhood in Newquay, Cornwall, in the 1920s and 1930s, is highly enjoyable, but tinged with sadness. Inbetween entertaining anecdotes about playing on the beach, outings, parties, eccentric people etc, is the constant theme of the baleful effect her bitter, unhappy father had on his family. He longed for a career as an artist, but instead had to work as a bank clerk, a job he loathed, and considered beneath him. His lack of money and social status, combined with his thwarted artistic yearnings, made him a difficult man to live with. While it is easy to sympathise with his frustration at his inability to fulfill himself and being stuck in a dull and uncongenial job, it is less easy to sympathise with the way he takes out his frustration on his gentle, good-natured wife, and his children.

However, there is much to enjoy in this book despite the presence of Emma's scowling, sneering father, and it is obvious that she remembers much of her childhood with intense pleasure. Reading the book, you feel her sadness when, at the age of twelve, her family moved away from Newquay and from her beloved Great Western beach.

[Lynn Kearney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written memoir of life with a difficult family (aren't they all?) in Cornwall between the wars.

[Di Castle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved reading Emma Smith's memoir of a childhood in Cornwall where every weekend the Hallsmith family would take picnics, games, beachwear and swimming costumes to their favourite Cornish beaches. Elspeth, the narrator, captivates us by using present tense and its immediacy to give us an insight into the magical times the children had. Her parents are also happiest when they are on the beach but at home it is a different story with her father resentful that he has only a lowly occupation as a cashier in a bank when he feels his artistic talent should make him famous. His repeated efforts to get work accepted at the Royal Academy is anguishing to read. His black moods affect the whole family, reduce his wife to tears and send the children scuttling away to their bedrooms in fear of his bad temper. My only misgiving was that Elspeth insists they are poor and cannot afford even the basics in life but they do have a daily home help, Lucy, who lives in for some of their childhood and ensures life runs smoothly for the children. Their picnics also contain good food so I found it hard to empathise with her on this point especially as they did have access to a car for most of their 1930s childhood even if it was shared at times. I grew up in the 1950s without a family car and no rich relatives which probably makes my view of their poverty rather biased.
It is interesting to see the change in their father when their mother inherits some money enabling them to have their own car, move to a larger house and have treats such as ice creams and knickerbocker glories on birthdays. Not surprisingly a baby brother is soon on his way.
The book really explores how Elspeth comes to terms with the sadness that hides behind their front door as she grows up and her own reasoning and excuses for both her parents' behaviour.
This really is a not-to-be-missed memoir which leaves a warm feeling inside. I was sorry to finish it and know the wonderful journey was over.

[Helen Cooley · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and often wittily written childhood memoir, from the 1920s and 1930s. This true story was of particular interest to me as it was set in Newquay, Cornwall, where I regularly go to surf.

To read evocative descriptions of familiar beaches, local streets and places from 80-90 years ago was a fascinating step back in time. Even more interesting were the author's young child's perspective on her parents often antiquated views on such topics as 'fast and loose women'!, divorcees!, local characters and the curious situation of considering themselves a middle class family – having a full time employed maid – and yet living on the poverty line for the first years of our storytellers life, hiding it from the rest of society to maintain face.

The fact that the parents marriage was volatile and unhappy, due to the father's issues (post-traumatic stress from WW1 trenches? Just being a miserable b*stard by nature?) adds interesting contrast to the story – an idyllic beach-side existence in public, but a life of constantly trying not to enrage Daddy and be the focus of his wrath in private.

I'd certainly be interested to read Emma Smith's follow on book, 'As Green As Grass', which picks up the story when she is aged 12.

[Chris Howells · Rating 5 out of 5]

Both happy and sad.

I went to school in Newquay in the late 60s so the descriptions of places and characters of the town were fascinating for me. But the sad tale of a dysfunctional family, in part to possible PTSD, seems almost cathartic for the author. Indeed to read and research more about the family and what happens after.

[Lynne · Rating 2 out of 5]

An enjoyable read about Edwardian family life just after the first world war. My main reason for reading it is I'm reading anything and everything about Cornwall a the moment since I'll be visiting soon!

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A moving memoir of a 1923 to 1935 childhood on the Cornwall beaches in England. Evocative and starkly honest. Just what I look for in a memoir. The author coming to terms with her own childhood and the dark spaces there.

[JackieB · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an engrossing memoir of Emma Smith's childhood. It was written in the present tense which I didn't think I was going to like. However it just made the memories more vivid.

[Dan Pearce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never have I read a more enthralling memoir written from the vantage point of a young child. Includes a vivid and tragic portrait of a bitter and frustrated artist, her father.

[Gillian Wheeldon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful, gentle, but not bland, read.

[Gail]

very interesting, funny and a great book .

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some parts were interesting but it was quite repetitive. What should have been an idyllic childhood wasn't. Sad.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emma Smith’s memoir of a 1920s childhood in Newquay, Cornwall is a remarkably detailed portrait of the author’s early years in a beautiful part of the country which even in the Twenties was a fashionable seaside resort pulling in holidaymakers from far and wide in the summer months. The casual bookshop browser could easily mistake it for a feel-good summer holiday read, but there are dark shadows in the wings: a frustrated and convention-bound father whose experience of the Western Front and the dashing of all his dreams of artistic success have driven him to moodiness and sudden outbursts of temper, and a beautiful, talented but powerless mother trapped in an unhappy marriage. The author’s heartfelt afterword captures her feelings with poignancy and regret: ‘O my parents, my poor tragic parents - my good and beautiful, brave, dramatic, unperceptive mother; my disappointed, embittered, angry, lonely, talented father: locked, both of them, inside a prison they had not deserved, for reasons they didn’t understand, by conventions they took to be immutable laws. Smith, however, is equally as good at capturing moments of joy, discovery and wonder; her child’s eye perception of the world around her young self is remarkably detailed and full of life. A complex, rich, moving book that deserves to be better known.

[Elisabeth Bibbings · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very enjoyable nostalgic memoir of childhood in Cornwall. The author grew up with older brother and sister Jim and Pam, and younger brother Harvey, in Newquay between the world wars. Her parents had both seen distinguished service, father getting a DSO (of which he was extremely proud) and her mother being Commandant of a military hospital. Unfortunately, father, a failed artist who would not accept teaching or indeed criticism of any kind, had married a woman far more socially polished and popular than he was - the phrase "chip on his shoulder" is never used, but suffice it to say, that her parents had a very unhappy marriage. Of course, in those days, divorce was almost entirely out of the question.
For all that, Elspeth (Emma Smith's real name) was a happy child, revelling in the Cornish beaches, surfing and swimming. There are lighter moments in her parents' marriage, as when a legacy leaves them in more affluent circumstances, and there are moments of sheer joy for Elspeth and her siblings. Although I felt her father needed a few home truths spelling out to him, (which would have meant he never spoke to me again), the delight of a childhood in a relatively unspoilt Cornish town is the overwhelming impression of this book.

[Pat Morris-jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, after reading second half of her memoir for book club, this is like a different author. It’s written well, it shows her thoughts and feelings and is far more well described than the next book. Which can’t be difficult. Interestingly in this book as says she will never write about time after this book. Too many secrets. If you read the next one it may explain it although none of us noticed anything worth keeping quiet about ( maybe it was a secret). This book was helped by me knowing area quite well. I, thus, had opportunity to look up where she was talking about on map. Things definitely change including names of roads. Bakers folly remains, called something else of course, but my folly was in looking to see if appropriate to stay there ( looks gorgeous). At £330 per night that I glanced at in Spring I won’t be going. Plus £20 per night for a dog. So, as it no longer has the outdoor swimming pool which most attracted me, I decided against.
Anyway enough said. Glad I read it. May even look toward one of her novels as time on canals in next book was interesting but not enough detail. Now I know why. One of her books is about time on canals.

[Margaret McCulloch-Keeble]

No, nope, nopitty nope. I got about a third of the way through and had to stop. I can't stand memoirs from well oarff folk who reckon they had a tough childhood because they only had a large roof over their head and one nanny. My mum was 6 years younger than this woman and she grew up, a miner's daughter, one of eight children, and if her catholic school didn't have enough bread rolls to give the children each day, then my granny didn't eat at all some days-(they took turns to smuggle a roll home for her). That's poor, not this.

[Yasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the book, real life about a bygone era. Nothing dramatic happens yet the very young Emma Smith is so observant, telling it as it is but the small every-day happenings and observations became fascinating and revealing.

[Cathy Blackburn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Couldn’t get on with this book.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable. Wish I had read it before ‘The Far Cry.’

[PrettyFlamingo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review to follow.

[Josie · Rating 3 out of 5]

[Audiobook version]

This was really nice to listen to -- there was something lulling about the first person present tense narration, like being on the phone to someone while they describe something that's happening in front of them. There's a wonderful childlike innocence to the prose, and a gradual loss of that innocence as Elspeth grows up. I especially enjoyed the scenes with Pam, Elspeth's stubborn older sister.