The Fowlers and the Willoughbys are two families deeply embedded into the life of the country town of Bellington in England between the wars. Both are headed by widowed matriarchs with five largely grown-up children apiece, but there the resemblance ends:

The Fowlers were of the county, while the Willoughbys were of the town. They sat on the same committees, attended the same public functions, but did not visit each other. Mrs Fowler suspected that the Willoughbys felt the same contempt for Henry as Henry, half unconsciously, felt for them. Henry was in their eyes a useless member of the community, while the Willoughbys were the community itself. They were its mayors, its town councillors, its Guardians of the Poor. They organised its Christmas treats, its Poor Children's Holidays, its Old People's Parties. And it was Mrs Willoughby, eagle-eyed, eagle-beaked, built on the formidable lines of a dreadnought, who was the ruling spirit of the clan.

When Max Willoughby and Helen Fowler marry, and Helen turns out to be more of a Willoughby in nature than she ever was a Fowler, the families are brought closer together. Family Roundabout follows their fortunes between 1920 and 1939, as births, marriages, deaths and divorce follow one another quickly, and Mrs Fowler and Mrs Willoughby come to appreciate each other's strengths.

In my mind Richmal Crompton is forever associated with the Just William books, but this is one that she wrote for adults, now republished by Persephone. This is a pleasant enough book but I think I was expecting something a little more light hearted from the author of the hilarious Just William series, and in the main the lives of the Fowlers and Willoughbys seem to have rather more downs than ups. I came away with the distinct impression (which I've also had from other books from this time period) that I would not like to have been a middle-class woman between the wars one little bit. The narrative jumps from one member of the family to another, and would have been improved on focusing on rather fewer main characters. So a reasonable read overall, but not one that's going to make me search out more of Richmal Crompton's adult fiction. ( )

[Family Roundabout] – published 1948; republished by Persephone 2001
Time period 1920s and 30s.
This is the first work by [[Richmal Crompton]] that I have read and it is a real treat.
It examines the dynamics of two families – the Fowlers and the Willoughbys. The Fowlers are regarded as middle class impoverished gentry whereas the Willoughbys are wealthy who have acquired their wealth through industry. It is wealth acquired by “Trade”. Mrs Fowler and Mrs Willoughby are both widows and have relatively large families. There are five siblings in each family. Most of the children are adult or teenagers, the youngest is each family being sixteen.
The families are interlinked by the marriage of Max, the elder Willoughby to Helen, second youngest daughter of the Fowlers. The novel contrasts the different approaches to motherhood taken by the two matriarchs. Mrs Fowler, when young was known as Millicent, an independent young woman but following her marriage to Henry, she hid her intelligence and set about becoming the wife her husband desired. She became the “self-effacing” little woman who describes herself as “being in the background of her children’s lives”. (P. 3) She is not a demanding mother and accepts her children without criticism as long as they are happy in their life choices.
In contrast, Mrs Willoughby controls every aspect of her children’s lives down to and including the colours of the clothes her married daughters choose to wear and the furnishings within their houses. The elder son, Max, manages the family’s paper-mill business but must consult his mother about every decision. The younger son, Oliver is an artistic type who dreams of becoming a writer. His mother quickly dismisses this idea and he is forced to work in the family business. Mrs Willoughby’s iron rule also extends to her grandchildren but, as with all iron rules there is eventual revolt.
The characters are well developed. and there is a particularly manipulative and nasty daughter-in-law in the Fowler family. There are many crises and dramas each family has to deal with including, adolescent passion, unrequited love, divorce and extramarital affairs. The author deals with these in a very realistic way, sometimes funny and sometimes dramatic. She has written a very realistic insight into the dynamics of large families.
Rating: 4.5 Stars ( )

The anticipation of opening a new Persephone is always a big part of the pleasure of reading one of these beautiful books. Luckily though I can generally be very confident of loving what is inside too, and certainly within a few sentences of starting this book I knew I loved it.

The story centres on the fortunes of two families in the years between WW1 and WW2 – the Fowler and the Willoughby families are the two principle families in Bellington. The Fowlers are an old genteel family, while the Willoughby’s owners of a local paper mill are the considerably wealthy new money. Both Mrs Fowler and Mrs Willoughby are widows, the parents of now adult children, they are rather different women. As the story starts the two families become united by the marriage of Helen Fowler and Max Willoughby. Mrs Willoughby is a deeply controlling woman, she holds sway over everything, from the mill itself to her grandchildren’s schooling. Her new daughter-in-law fits right in immediately proving to be very like Mrs Willoughby. Helen’s sister Anice marries a bookshop owner – a not very successful one at that – and as the years pass is driven to bitter envies of Helen, which affect her marriage and the relationships between her husband and their children. Peter Fowler is married to the spiteful vengeful Belle, beautiful and downright nasty – Peter is soon looking elsewhere. When the eldest Fowler Matthew returns from abroad he too falls under the spell of Belle. Oliver Willoughby has fallen for the youngest Fowler – Judy, while Cynthia Willoughby, Judy’s close friend since childhood has begun to write letters to an author she admires from afar.

The years pass and these relationships change and develop, children are born and grow up and Mrs Fowler and Mrs Willoughby too begin to age. Yet they are the witnesses to the continuing roundabout of family life, the same problems and mistakes being visited upon each generation. The characters are beautifully drawn and their relationships often painful.

I do love books like this that examine family members in detail, recreating the domestic situations and concerns of people from the inter war years. Persephone publishes a lot of novels like this – and that is why I love Persephone books. Yet when it comes to describing the book to someone else I find it is very difficult to do it justice. Richmal Crompton has created a world that is still very recognisable, the women are very strong and not always likeable, and the men are much weaker. The world is changing and as the young want to move with the times, or even move away from the suffocating little world of Bellington, the older generation like Mrs Willoughby are more resistant. There is a lovely timelessness to this novel – and it is surprising perhaps that it is such a page turner. ( )

A readable novel on the subject of family relationships, with many resonances for our own times.