A small mystery solved

By ADRIAN TAHOURDIN

Early in 1993 the TLS
published a French special issue with a cover image by Robert Doisneau of an
unidentified young woman sitting on one of the Parisian quais within sight of Notre Dame Cathedral, probably at work on her
first novel. How very French we thought, although one colleague did point out
that he would have found it irritating to have someone typing away near him in
a public space.

The identity of the young typist can be revealed. She is
Emma Smith, whose memoir As Green as
Grass (Bloomsbury) has just reached the TLS
offices. The photo appears inside as well as on the cover and is captioned “Summer
in Paris, working on The Far Cry and keeping
cool by the Seine during a heatwave, 1948”. The TLS, I’m happy to say, reviewed The
Far Cry in 1949, together with two other novels, including one by
Marghanita Laski: “Miss Emma Smith writes, in contrast to Miss Laski’s almost
masculine style, on a note of feminine sensibility, happily leavened by a sense
of the ridiculous which occasionally becomes humour . . . ; her first novel
marks a definite advance in her career, and if the influence of Miss Elizabeth
Bowen sometimes becomes perceptible, The
Far Cry is none the worse for it”. The novel went on to win the James Tait
Black Memorial Prize.  

Think of Doisneau’s famous photo of the young lovers outside
the Hôtel de Ville in Paris: the young woman in that one was revealed to be
English too. A curious double for the photographer.

Emma Smith’s memoir will be reviewed in the TLS in due course.