Guard Your Daughters: intro and opening thoughts

[Tania, Gloucestershire Wild Daffodil.]

Diana Tutton only published three books which were this one, Mamma and The Young Ones. Sadly, only the first two are readily available, and of those this one is my favourite. There is apparently a manuscript of a sequel to this one, maybe Persephone or the British Library Women Writers series will pick it up one day; I doubt it. Meanwhile, at least we have these two to be going on with. Enjoy!

Here's what Persephone say about it.
https://persephonebooks.co.uk/product...

[Elke]

I am looking forward to this one! And also watching my mailbox for my copy to arrive...

[Pamela]

I have just started this and am enjoying it immensely, even though the mother sets my teeth on edge.

The girls are great fun, and their relationship with each other very warm and loving. I think it’s very well written so far, the way that the idyllic family set up has a dark cloud over it and the tension is building.

[Tania, Gloucestershire Wild Daffodil.]

Yes; my review, written a few years ago, describes it as 'charming', but when I read it (the review) back recently I was thinking this was the wrong description because I remembered that dark undertone; I think it's that warmth that made me think of it as charming. Similarly, I Capture the Castle, which I also think of as a charming and funny book, and yet it is about a family facing almost hopeless poverty, albeit not the sort of poverty that would keep people in slums or tenements, but it does have a darkness to it.

[Tania, Gloucestershire Wild Daffodil.]

Elke wrote: "I am looking forward to this one! And also watching my mailbox for my copy to arrive..."

I love a bit of book post. : )

[Jess]

Pamela wrote: "I have just started this and am enjoying it immensely, even though the mother sets my teeth on edge.

The girls are great fun, and their relationship with each other very warm and loving. I think ..."

I’m about a third of the way into this one. I completely agree with Pamela about the mother setting one’s teeth on edge. It’s been a struggle to not roll my eyes when she’s on seen. And I dislike the father in his heavy handed manner of treating the girls combined with his detachment. I say heavy handed due to his instructions on the youngest’s education left entirely to her sisters and stating Gregory can’t return as it upset his house too much.

The lack of formal education made me double check the time period. Then I think it was Morgan who told Gregory (?) that they were fifty years behind or something like that in terms of not sending girls to school. Which i suppose even in modern day we have that sort of movement, the “unlearning” movement which is the theory children are self paced learners and will learn what they need/want to without any formal education. Nature will be their guide. Which I’d probably support a hybrid of both- reading, writing, and arithmetic are life skills which I always hope those kids are taught along with science in their outdoor pursuits.

[Pamela]

Their education was certainly odd. They had a really good knowledge of literature from rooting through books, including French (although their accents were atrocious), music and little else.

I also found the infantilising of Teresa really irritating - she is supposed to be about 15 but she’s encouraged to behave like a small child. The scene at the convent with the nun was funny but also made me want to scream! I guess this is another aspect of the lack of consistency in the parenting they get.

[Tr1sha]

Tania wrote: "Diana Tutton only published three books which were this one, Mamma and The Young Ones. Sadly, only the first two are readily available, and of those..."

This sounds interesting. I found that Mamma is available to borrow free for anyone who has a Kindle Unlimited subscription with AmazonUK so this may be useful for some members.

[Tania, Gloucestershire Wild Daffodil.]

Thanks Tricia, I am a member at the moment and I'm keeping it to be able to read the next batch of books, they usually go into Unlimited about a week after the paperbacks are released. Really looking forward to them.

[Tania, Gloucestershire Wild Daffodil.]

I have started this one now.

Primrose Jess wrote: "The lack of formal education made me double check the time period. Then I think it was Morgan who told Gregory (?) that they were fifty years behind or something like that in terms of not sending girls to school."

This is quite odd. In the second chapter, Morgan has a conversation with Pandora about Theresa's education where they know something should be done, and they are aware that their father could be jailed for her lack of education. Apparently, when the school inspector turned up, the mother had said Mrs Fletcher(?) their governess would be back soon, (knowing full well she wouldn't). Thisbe declares that schools are "sinks of ignorance and unnatural vice". (From her vast experience of them).

[Tania, Gloucestershire Wild Daffodil.]

I've just read the scene where Morgan and Thisbe go to the Malfrey's party. Thisbe and Morgan tease Suzanne about their brother, who is not Violent, "Except, of course, when the Sukebind is out." I'd always assumed that Stella Gibbons had made sukebind up for Cold Comfort Farm, so I looked it up. She did invent it, I've read that it represents "Unbridled human lust" or the darkness that hangs over the farm, and has made its way into the OED. "An imaginary plant associated with superstition, fertility, and intense rustic passions"