Over The Mountains

Clothes of a King's Son #3

by Pamela Frankau

"This is the third and last installment of Pamela Frankau's trilogy, a kind of teashop Forsythe Saga. Set geographically in New York, London, France, Bermuda, and Hollywood. This one, as in the first (Slaves of the Lamp) is Thomas' story and Thomas is the least forgettable of the large Weston family, those they love, those they lose. He is the one who since childhood has had ""talisman phases,"" a very special gift he calls his magic. Now as the book opens during World War II (the series began in 1914), Thomas is reported missing and later dead, while Rab, whom he loves, is in France and has just emerged from the guilty responsibility of Noel's death (Noel she loved, and Noel by the way is a girl). Here and there, back and forth it goes until Thomas, who has not died but has been wounded, finally makes his way back-- to Rab. It's reassuring although readers will need the earlier volumes as an introduction to the Westons and this hands-across-the-sea Anglo-American continuity."

Genres: Fiction

Hardcover

First published June 1, 1967

About the author

Popular British novelist. Her father was novelist Gilbert Frankau, her mother satirist Julia Davis, and her uncle British radio comedian, Ronald Frankau.

Her writing success came when she was only twenty, with The Marriage of Harlequin (1927). A relationship with the married Humbert Wolfe ended only with his death in 1940. She then ceased to write for a long period.

During the Second World War, she worked for the BBC, the Ministry of Food, and the Auxiliary Territorial Service.

First published in 1954, A Wreath for the Enemy is perhaps her best loved novel and still in print on both sides of the Atlantic. In the novel the events of one night transform what appears at first to be a typical adolescent crisis into a prolonged struggle for self-definition on the part of the novel's teenage protagonist. In part autobiographical, Frankau clearly identified with her lead character who is presented as a writer in development.

Frankau became a Roman Catholic convert in 1942, and spent much time in the United States. She was married there, though only for a few years. She returned to England in 1953. A long lesbian relationship with the theatre director Margaret Webster began in the 1950s.

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pamela Frankau was a popular novelist whose career spanned the 1930s to the 1960s. Over the Mountains is the third book in a trilogy about the Weston family. The first two books are Sing for Your Supper and Slaves of the Lamp. I actually recommend reading the first two books before Over the Mountains because otherwise it's hard to keep all the players straight.
As a teenager I was besotted by Frankau's books and used to comb through the library shelves looking for ones I hadn't read. Surprisingly, I probably bought Over the Mountains in the late 1980s, and it sat on our shelves for 30 years before I picked it up.
Over the Mountains opens in the spring of 1940. It is narrated by several voices. There is Thomas Weston, the youngest son of the Weston family who enlisted in the British army and became an officer , serving in as yet unoccupied France. There is Mrs. Murray, Thomas's grandmother, stubbornly staying in her flat in Kensington, despite the efforts of her irritating daughter and son-in-law to move her to safer pastures in Scotland. There is Phillip Weston, Thomas's father, a successful actor in Hollywood, his second wife, Paula, her daughter, Rab, driving ambulances in France, and Phillip's other children, Gerald, an actor in New York, and his sister Sarah who has been emotionally destroyed by her husband's suicide. Gerald's wife, Mary Castle, appears in the story, but doesn't narrate.
It's sometimes hard to keep the Hollywood Westons straight. Over the Mountains contains a good deal of reminiscences and memories of events that appear in the earlier books.
In the opening chapter, Thomas is reported killed trying to escape from the Germans. While his family mourns him in their various ways, he is on the run, trying to get across the boundary between occupied France and unoccupied France. (Flyleaf.)
Over the Mountains is a complicated book. The characters struggle with their inner and outer demons while making fun of the professional British patriots, safe in the US, who loudly mourn their absence from home. All the American Westons are in turmoil. Go back to Britain one way or another, or stay in the US and help the war effort? Bring Mrs. Murray, the grandmother, and the children's former nanny to Bermuda, or let them stay in London. Meanwhile, Thomas tries to maintain his inner decency even during the war by leaving money hidden where the people who harbor him will find it after he leaves. Great descriptions.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Over the Mountains is the third novel in Pamela Frankau’s Clothes of a King’s Son trilogy, which follow the fortunes of a theatrical family over almost twenty years. In Sing for your Supper and Slaves to the Lamp – we saw the Weston children grow up in the shadow of PhilipWeston; their Pierrot star father and start lives of their own. Gerald following in his actor father’s footsteps, Sarah’ who embarks on a writing career, before marrying an older wealthy man, while Thomas the youngest; adored by everyone struggles with the gift of spiritualism.

Over the Mountains opens in 1940 – and Europe is at War. In London, Blanche – once nanny to the Weston children and still a family favourite, moves in with their grandmother Mrs Murray to help her manage the house in wartime. They are a rather wonderful double act – but take a bit of a back seat in this novel.

“Mrs Murray professed to look forward to the air raids. She maintained every precautionary device; sand-buckets; buckets of water; the stirrup-pump; the regulation shovel for dealing with incendiaries. She had bought what they called a siren suit last September. These were not her only preparations. She had ordered three dozen bottles of red wine on Mr Percy’s account, the day Hitler invaded Holland. They were taking up two shelves and all the floor-space in the linen cupboard.
One had to laugh.”

Thomas is in France, having joined up early in the war. Thomas has been reported missing, captured by a German patrol, a fellow prisoner has confirmed seeing Thomas shot. Blanche and Mrs Murray refuse to believe the news – and they are right to – Thomas was merely wounded, later rescued by a French family. The story of Thomas’s extraordinary adventures on the continent are told in chapters entitled The Unwritten Notebook.

full review: https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2017/...