Margaret Forster: Keeping the World Away (October 2024)

Margaret Forster took her inspiration from a series of paintings by Post-Impressionist artist Gwen John (1876-1939). Deceptively simple, these small works depicted a sunlit corner of her attic room in Paris with a wicker chair, a pine table and jar of primroses and her discarded coat and parasol.

In the book she gives one of the pictures to her friend who promptly loses it and we then follow the painting over the course of the century as it passes from one woman to another. It gets stolen twice, is discovered on a market stall, is fought over, sold for £5 and comes close to being destroyed by an angry woman who believes that it might have been painted by her husband’s lover.

This novel is almost a collection of short stories linked by the the picture and previous characters reappear. Sometimes coincidences in a book can be irritating but the author manages to pull it off. Also people on cultural sightseeing holidays in those times probably did all stay in certain hotels and visit the same places.

Each woman who comes into possession of the painting connects deeply with it and it reflects a need in them for either literally, a quiet uncluttered corner for themselves or a longing for some peace of mind and inner calm.

They all have feelings for art or are, or wish to be, artists themselves. One, realising that she could never produce a painting like the Attic Room, opens her own art gallery and encourages the talent in others.

Margaret Forster examines relationships within families and between men and women and the difficulties women face in following their creative careers or simply any degree of autonomy with family and home commitments. The single women find their passionate affairs can overwhelm them to the detriment of their work.

The women all learn and grow in this book. They have their flaws and struggles but they stand their ground in spite of opposition and each gains from the painting that has come into their ownership.

We all knew of Margaret Forster but for some of us this was the first time we had read her work and agreed that we would definitely look out for other books by her.

5/5