Dear walking book clubbers,
WHAT A BOOK!!!
I can’t wait to discuss this with you. Jane Graham is such a wonderful heroine to spend time with - I keep finding myself excusing myself from real life to disappear into its pages and be with her, and her coterie of down-and-outs…
The L-Shaped Room is particularly fascinating coming after our last two books, both of which feature unmarried women who become pregnant. This time, we’re in 1960s London, in a horrid bedsit in Fulham, where Jane Graham finds her unlikely ‘Room of One’s Own’ and - along with the bedbugs - new friends to bolster her.
Those of you who aren’t appreciating this deep dive into female resilience, look out for our April book which is a totally different kettle of fish. Tickets for our April events have just gone on sale: details and booking links at the bottom of this email.
Read on to find details of our March events (including our appearance at the Daunt Books Festival), some ideas about The L-Shaped Room, and links to explore further.
Our March The L-Shaped Room events
Emily’s Regent’s Park Walking Book Club with THE DAUNT BOOKS FESTIVAL Friday 15th March, 10-11.45 *** please note the earlier start time this month *** setting off from Daunt Books, 84 Marylebone High Street, W1U 4QW, £8. With special L- Shaped biscuits from La Fromagerie!
Emily’s Hampstead Heath Walking Book Club: Sunday 17th March, 11.30-1pm, setting off from Daunt Books Hampstead, 51 South End Road, NW3 2QB, £8-15.
Emily’s Zoom Book Club: Monday 18th March, 8-8.40pm, £1-10 Feel free to tune in even if you’ve not read the book - our zooms are open to all.
On Our Reading Radar: Friday 22nd March, 1.30-2pm: London Join this month’s discussion thread to share your cultural highlights from this month, as well as your recommendations on the theme of LONDON - Which books and films do you think capture the spirit of the city?
Buy The L-Shaped Room from Daunt Books HERE and receive 10% off using the code WBC at checkout, or just tell them you’re in the group if you’re buying it in the shop.
Introducing The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks
We learn on the very first page, when she gets her room, ‘five flights up in one of those gone-to-seed houses in Fulham’, with chipped sinks on the landings and prostitutes in the basement, that Jane Graham is unmarried and newly pregnant. This is London in 1960, when houses in Fulham weren’t worth a gazillion pounds, and if you were unmarried and pregnant you were in a real fix. How is Jane going to cope? Especially on her own and in such a horrid little bedsit. No spoilers here, you’ll have to read it to find out…
The Past is a Different Country…
One of the great charms of this compelling novel is that it is such a period piece. Our last two books have taken us to the Far East and across America; here we are supposedly back at home and yet 60 odd years ago, London was a very different place. Gas fires, no Pill, typewriters, a fledgling NHS … How did you find this journey back in time? What differences did you notice? Are there any aspects that remain the same? Perhaps there is a certain quality of Englishness (I’m thinking in particular of Jane’s Father who can’t communicate and is so horribly Victorian in his treatment of her) that is timeless. What do you think?
Prejudice
It’s not just unmarried pregnant women like Jane who suffer prejudice in this book, but also the Jewish, Black and gay characters, as well as others. It’s shocking reading it, seeing such overt prejudice there on the page. I don’t think a book could be published like this today, although - sadly - so much prejudice remains. I love the way the L-shaped room becomes a haven for outsiders. Has the book altered any feelings of prejudice within you? Tough question that, as I’m sure none of us likes to think of ourselves as being prejudiced, but inevitably we suffer from unconscious bias at the very least.
Family and finding your space
Jane is about to begin a family, and her situation throws a cold light onto her own family. What did you make of her dad (see point above)? It felt terribly sad to me that as she was becoming a mother she misses her own mother so much (‘I felt that what I really needed was an older woman, someone who understood all the implications, who could see the thing in the perspective of wisdom and experience. It took me some months to realize that these dim yearnings of mine must be for my mother.’). How does Jane’s family shed light on her character? What did you think of the terrific Aunt Addy? Does Jane try to create a new family for herself in her new home? Does she succeed? What’s the difference between friends and family? There’s a distorted parallel to this story in one of our previous picks, All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West in which Lady Slane defies her horrible family when her husband dies, finds an idyllic new home in Hampstead and surrounds herself with select eccentric friends. I wonder if it’s ever possible to find a ‘room of one’s own’ and not ditch one’s family.
The hard truth vs easy lies
‘One always has to try the easy way, to prove that in the long run it’s harder than the other.’ Telling the truth can be extremely hard. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s suffered the appalling shame and dread of having to own up to something. But it is always better in the end to do the hard thing of being honest rather than inhabit the seductively easy world of lies. Or not? Do you think at times it’s fine to give yourself a break and tell an easy lie or two? What about Jane - how honest is she, both to others and to herself?
I hope these ideas get you thinking. Look out for my webcast next week with some more musings, along with a short reading from the book. As ever, there is a great deal more to discuss…
Discover more about the book and author
Do listen to THIS episode of BBC Radio 4’s Bookclub with James Naughtie, starring Lynne Reid Banks herself (pictured above). Absolutely fascinating to hear her reflections on the book.
I was really intrigued by THIS article by Lynne Reid Banks for the Guardian about her own pregnancy, on a kibbutz. It’s not easy reading, given the current situation in the Middle East.
Many of you will already know and love the film adaptation, starring Leslie Caron. It makes an interesting comparison (and Lynne Reid Banks was not entirely happy about it!). You can pay to watch it online on various platforms, including HERE from Google Play. HERE is the trailer. HERE are film notes from the BFI, and HERE is 20 minutes of Leslie Caron discussing it.
Read THIS piece by Cathi Unsworth on the excellent London Fictions website about the book, which is particularly good at exploring the context of West London and its resonance in the book and film. I’m really looking forward to this month’s discussion thread, which will be a chance to share other recommendations for books and films set in London.
Finally, you might like to look at Lynne Reid Banks’s website HERE. She is still alive and well (aged 94). She has written so many books, including TWO SEQUELS to The L-Shaped Room. Has anyone read them? Please report back. I recently read her wonderful children’s book The Indian in the Cupboard to my son, which was a great pleasure for us both. And you can find details of all her books on her website.
April - tickets are now on sale!
Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson translated by Anne Born
Sixty-seven-year-old Trond seeks solitude in a remote corner of Norway, only to find his idyll destroyed on happening upon a man from his past, who forces him to remember what he’d rather forget… Memories of a childhood tragedy and life in Occupied Norway rise to the surface in this painful and evocative masterpiece.
Why did I choose it? I always have an eye on helping readers discover more books in translation (in the UK, only 3.3% of fiction sales are translated - a shocking statistic that I would very much like to change!), and Scandi-lit is an area in which I’ve read alarmingly little. This book has been periodically recommended to me over the years, and I was immediately absorbed in its atmosphere and gripped by the story when I finally picked it up. Be warned: there is a deeply shocking moment near the beginning - if you are feeling a little vulnerable, especially about children, please take note and steel yourself…
The final couple of paragraphs of THIS joint review by Ian Thompson for the Guardian is a great, spoiler-free introduction.
In Regent’s Park: Friday 12th April, 12-1.45pm, setting off from Daunt Books, 84 Marylebone High Street, W1U 4QW, £8-15
On Hampstead Heath: Sunday 14th April, 11.30-1pm, setting off from Daunt Books Hampstead, 51 South End Road, NW3 2QB, £8-15
On Zoom: Monday 15th April, 8-8.40pm, £1-10
On Our Reading Radar: Friday 26th April, 1.30-2pm: Solitude Join this month’s discussion thread to share your cultural highlights from the month, as well as your recommendations on the theme of SOLITUDE - Which books and films do you think explore the state of being alone?
Buy Out Stealing Horses from Daunt Books HERE and receive 10% off using the code WBC at checkout, or just tell them you’re in the group if you’re buying it in the shop.
Happy reading!
Emily