A peach of a book

  

    This is a peach of a book: deliciously ripe and juicy but with a stone-hard centre. I loved it, and it's gone straight on my books of the year list.
The heroines of Elaine di Rollo's A Proper Education for Girls (first published as The Peachgrowers' Almanac) are twin sisters Lilian and Alice Talbot who live in a vast Victorian mansion with their controlling father and a number of his aged aunts. Lilian has 'disgraced' herself and been banished to India where, married to a dreary missionary, she is caught up in the Mutiny of 1857.
    Alice, meanwhile, remains at home helping her father with his "Collection". Mr. Talbot has the acquisitive habits of a William Burrell crossed with John Tradescant the Elder, and his enormous magpie's hoard of items scientific, decorative, quaint and curious, are ranged everywhere about his house. Alice, however, is a young woman of intelligence, open-minded, outspoken, independent of spirit; what future is there for her in this stultifying environment, and what chance of escape?
     What transpires is - as one reviewer put it - a "rollicking" adventure, both for Lilian in exile and Alice at home. I loved its humour, its scenes of great comic imagination, its fascinating factual basis. The author has a doctorate in the social history of medicine, and her research has been put to good but careful use here as we learn much about the treatment of women at the hands of the medical profession of the time (hence the 'stone-hard centre' I mentioned above). The book also features Bakewell tart, early photography, Victorian pornography, numbered mice, a mnemonic coat, a home-made volcano and a wonderful, wonderful conservatory (I want it!!).
    With a seedy butler called Sluce, Cattermole the odious medic, and Mr. Hunter the Flashman-esque plant-hunter, this highly imaginative novel is part Gothic farce with shades of Gormenghast and Monty Python. I hope I've done it justice (its cover does not, I think) for it is terrific stuff!  

Comments

[Tara]

I'm so glad to see a review of this so quickly! I'm defnitely adding this to the must-read list!

[Claire (Paperback Reader)]

This sounds like so much fun! The cover reminds me of the Flashman novels.

[sherry]

Some aspects of this book I loved, others I did not.
Loved the 12 grandfather clocks with synchronized chimes, the conservatory, the volcano, the chaotic housekeeping. Less enraptured with the India sections. Lillian reminded me of Marianne North.

[Danielle]

Hi Cornflower--am google-ing to find what you wrote about the Upson novel, but can't find it, but did find this--I'm glad you enjoyed it--it does sound like a rollicking sort of story (and the UK cover is fun). I have it sitting by my bed and can't wait to read it! :)

[Sara]

Gosh, I'll definitely have to read this one; how can I pass up a book about two women who share my own family name!! And your high recommendation too, of course.