Maggie Joel

What a great story. Two women, two children of the same age, both sheltering in an Underground Station during an air raid. Two totally different backgrounds. Only one woman and one child survive. I can quite imagine the horror and fear both must have felt during such a terrible night. The descriptions of the bombing sounds were particularly good and I felt like I was there, with them, sheltering in the dark. The husbands' stories are very much back stories to the unimaginable choice that had to be made. I loved this book. I am sad to say goodbye to Diana and Gerald, Nancy and Jo and of course little Abigail and Emily.… (meer)

A story of tragedy, grief, and redemption, Half The World in Winter centers around Lucas Jarmyn and his family who are mourning the grisly death of nine year old Sofia. As the household struggles with the loss of their beloved daughter and sister they turn away from each other, and their home, in which Lucas forbids a fire to be set, grows ever colder.
Hundreds of miles away a train accident claims the life of a young girl. Her grief stricken father, Thomas Brinkley, demands justice from the head of the railway, Lucas Jarmyn, and when it is not immediately forthcoming, seeks revenge on the man and his family.

Half the World in Winter is an exploration of the dynamics of a family in mourning, and the impact of death and grief in a period where tragedy was common. The Jarmyn family are not only struck by the death of Sofia, they lose a nephew to the Boer War, a cook to a chicken bone, a discarded maid to vice, and are burdened by the deaths of those souls killed on the railway.

“Inside 19 Cadogan Mews time had ceased. It no longer existed, it had no meaning. A silence had fallen that no one felt willing to break. Footsteps were muffled, and commands, if they were given at all, were given in muted whispers in the hallways and corridors. doors were kept closed and before entering hands hesitated on doorknobs and deep breaths were taken. An excuse not to enter at all was often found.”

Set in England during the 1880’s, the period detail is rich and meticulous, from the minutiae of the Jarmyn’s household to the physical and social context of Victorian England. I was surprisingly interested by the workings of the Victorian railway system, and intrigued by the elaborate rituals of mourning – for middle class Britons there were strict rules to be followed after a death, determining, for example, the type and colour of fabric worn, to the depth of the border on notepaper.

“Half an inch for the first three months of mourning certainly. After that the border decreases to one-third of an inch. At six months it decreases to a quarter of an inch, then in increments of a tenth of an inch over the succeeding six months depending on the nature of the loss and one’s relationship with the deceased”

I did struggle with the sombre and often bleak timbre of the narrative and the measured pace of the novel quickened only marginally near the end. The writing however is stylish and descriptive, and the portrayal of the period is vivid.

Half The World in Winter is a genteel historical drama, but it was a little too slow and solemn for me to really enjoy… (meer)

I always look forward to novels written by Maggie Joel. She combines elegant prose with an element of history I know little about to create a story that is fascinating with a touch of Gothic qualities. For Half the World in Winter (don’t worry, you’ll discover the meaning of the title by the middle of the book), she goes back in history further than before to London, 1880. The setting is still London and the topic is grief. This is an era before antibiotics, skin grafts and trauma medicine became routine and the untimely deaths of two young girls haunt two families, leading them to breaking point.

The main family we follow is the Jarmyns. Sofia died a prolonged, agonising death after her clothes caught on fire. Since then, her father has banned fires in the house (not a comfortable thing in the cold of December when electricity was in its infancy). Lucas is also increasingly concerned about the role his wife Aurora played in the accident but he can’t bring himself to ask her. Aurora is still grieving but her husband is unreachable. In the midst of this, their daughter Dinah has a secret of her own, one that will become more painful to carry as the Boer War begins. Then there’s the housekeeper, Mrs Logan, who appeared in shady circumstances (or so Aurora believes) and the maids who have quit after seeing a ghost in the drawing room.

Running parallel is the grief of Thomas Brinklow, who lost his daughter Alice in a train crash. The connection? Mr Jarmyn owns the railway they were travelling on, which is no stranger to accidents. Was the company negligent or was it driver error? As Thomas’s wife deserts him, he travels to London, destitute and mad with grief to seek an audience with Mr Jarmyn.

Once again, the history in this novel is fascinating. I enjoyed learning more about the Victorian mourning rituals (especially the colours of the dresses and note cards as well as the thickness of the coloured border as a marker of the depth of grief). The trips the Jarmyn women took to Dearly Departed, an emporium for all things grief related was morbidly enthralling. I also liked how trains, a relatively new invention, were treated with suspicion and fear – can you imagine that these days (we don’t even feel that way about the latest mass travel machine, aeroplanes)? The setting is expertly done; I felt the London fog and despair as I heard the streets rattle with carriages and carts. Maggie Joel’s books evoke emotion without fail.

As for plot, I found it initially slow as the characters and their stations were revealed but it grew on me as I continued to read and the characters began to reveal their secrets. It was very cleverly plotted and entwined – I found just as I was wondering what one character’s secret or link to another was, it was described. The revelations at the end of the story tied everything together well, but not as I’d expected (which is a good thing; I like a good twist in my story). While not upbeat, the story shines with authenticity on how people thought, felt and acted during this time period. Light relief was provided by the cook (who will not cook pigeon under any circumstance, indeed the family need to fool her into thinking she’s cooking ‘Prussian fowl’) and Hermione, the new maid who turns out to be a good actress in a crisis.

An enthralling insight into grief and the rituals of the Victorians, Half the World in Winter delivers a sombre yet authentic story. It’s the closest you’ll get to a time machine to access the Victorian period.

Thank you to Allen and Unwin for the ARC of this book.

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