Persephone Books discussion

Greengates STARTING Thoughts/Discussion Questions
Happy November all ! Who is joining me reading Greengates by R.C. Sherriff this month ?

I am really looking forward to Greengates this month!

Susan wrote: "I am really looking forward to Greengates this month!"
Happy November Susan ! me too : ) x

I really enjoyed Greengates when I first read it many, many months ago. But then I liked all Sherriff's work, he was so prolific too. You've all bound to have seen his film work. What a quiet master of character. And with the horrible day outside, I know what I'll be doing....
Toast

Toast wrote: "I really enjoyed Greengates when I first read it many, many months ago. But then I liked all Sherriff's work, he was so prolific too. You've all bound to have seen his film work. What a quiet maste..." Hi Toast , I loved reading 'A Fortnight in September' . Please feel free to add your thoughts about Greengates on the FINISHED thread.
Thanks Karen : )

I’m a little better health-wise so hopefully I shall be able to join :O) Been wanting to try Sherriff for quite a while now.

Having read the opening chapters, I am surprised how easily I have been ridden by the emotions - the slow, sorrowful, self pitying in the run up to the call into the Manager's Office for the embarrassed 'goodbye and here's your clock' meeting with the phone / progress ringing in the background forever trying to hurry it up . Followed by the world weary deflation of the train ride home, the doom laden newspaper story about death and the retired before the soaring uplift of planning, the sunny uplands of a timetable of doings. 'I am the messiah - I shall survive retirement' and here's my stop, time for home, dinner, The Archer's on the radio and all is right with the world. Its like a well written music score, so neatly composed all within the realms of the 6.52 from London Bridge. Quiet masterpiece. The little human spots all the way through are just brilliant.
Toast

I read this book a few years ago when we read it as a group and loved it!! However, I looked too quickly at the title of this month's book and started reading GreenBANKS by Dorothy Whipple :) I'm enjoying that one, so I think I'll stick with that this month, haha! I'll try and join this discussion if I have time to read Greengates again later in the month.

Loved the section on retirement - the first day especially as Ada and Mr Baldwin(!) almost come to blows over a broom! More territorial battles ensue without Mr Baldwin (!) knowing of course as He - the master of the house - changes the times for breakfast, wants a proper lunch, takes Edith's picture paper and her chair, his heavyweight paper ready for the train left unread on the table, etc. All these changes have not just physical implications - Edith's removal to the cold spare room, lack of light for Edith's sewing, Ada's continual fury which Edith has to soothe but has financial issues too. But being so well brought up nothing is ever said, nagging happens and arguments with loud voices and then silences. Retirement is not as either had assumed it would be.
Thankfully, near the end of both their tethers, a walk in the country leds them to a building site - the future Greengates. More uplift, more planning. I feel I lived that long unslept night with Tom and Edith as they hoped and dreamed and then lost and then dreamt again.
It is a joy to read such a tale where the human qualities are so rich and so made much of. The 3 characters are so sharply drawn, I can almost hear their dialogue, know what they are wearing, pick their Christmas presents even. Wonderful writing.
Toast

Loved the section of the auction - the rise and fall of the day in the new house as all the new furniture, fixtures and fittings arrive but the lorry gets stuck in the road; the flurry of the move in; then over to dear old Grasmere and its bleak shell as its all packed up for the sale; the sober meal; the goodbye to Ada and her shabby case and nodding cherries in her hat before admitting defeat and going out to the pictures. The day of the sale is brilliant writing - defeat and triumph and then panic as the door closes for the last time. Then back over to the new house on the train, the shock is pulpalable until Edith opens a flask of sherry on the 7.45 or whatever it is., and talking it over calms the nerves and by the time we reach the uplands of Stanmore all is right with the world again.
Is Tom a worry - wart or every man?
Is Edith the most centred woman ever?
Is this a normal portrait of a marriage?
and of a move? and of a retirement crisis?
Or is Sherriff really making a mountain out of a mole hill but because I really like his writing I just can't see it?
Toast

Gina wrote: "I read this book a few years ago when we read it as a group and loved it!! However, I looked too quickly at the title of this month's book and started reading GreenBANKS by Dorothy Whipple :) I'm e..."
Hi Gina , no worries , i often get the two books with similar titles mixed up too . I'm looking forward to reading both : )

Toast wrote: "Loved the section of the auction - the rise and fall of the day in the new house as all the new furniture, fixtures and fittings arrive but the lorry gets stuck in the road; the flurry of the move ..."
Thanks for your thoughts Toast , i'm just starting the book today.
Will share my thoughts on the FINISHED thread : )

I got the book: then I couldn't find the group that was reading it so am just now getting started. I hope it is a good read.

Ann wrote: "I got the book: then I couldn't find the group that was reading it so am just now getting started. I hope it is a good read."
Hi Ann, i've just started it too, it's very funny !

The section with Van Doon (is that a play on words?) and the Welden Valley Club is pure comedy of manners, especially the scene at the meeting at the Van Doon's house and the following refreshments which so reminds me of a cricket tea. The politics and social interplay is so beautifully observed, so wonderfully timed. Yet, Sheriff isn't judgemental at all, its pure character.

Toast wrote: "The section with Van Doon (is that a play on words?) and the Welden Valley Club is pure comedy of manners, especially the scene at the meeting at the Van Doon's house and the following refreshments..."
Hi Toast, happy to hear you enjoyed it.

Looked at my original review - I was blown away by it then and I still am. What a writer! Such class.

Toast wrote: "Looked at my original review - I was blown away by it then and I still am. What a writer! Such class."
Have you read A Fortnight in September ? I loved that too

Finally getting started with this. I love how R C Sherriff nails the little details with pathos and humor.

Yes Karen, I have read A Fortnight in September. Which I loved to despite hating Bognor (we went there every year as a family - I loathed it!) and everything about reading about other people's holidays. But it's like Susan says Sherriff nails the little details and makes them matter. He is a wonderful writer.
Toast