posted on 04 Oct 2023

Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner

Sylvia Townsend Warner (1893 – 1978) is the perfect example of the way in which so many women novelists working in the first half of the 20th century were almost airbrushed out of literary history despite their skill, inventiveness and daring. It was, I think, largely the pioneering work of the Virago Press that gave many of them, including Warner, a platform by reprinting their novels and showing a new generation of readers what they were missing.

Warner wasn’t just a novelist but a political activist – a member of the Communist Party who served for the Red Cross during the Spanish Civil War. Warner was also a social radical and advocate of women’s rights and sexual freedom who was outspoken about her opposition to established religion.

All of these issues found their way into her first, audacious novel, Lolly Willowes which spent an unconscionable length of time out-of-print. The book starts as a witty satire on the novel of manners or the Provincial novel but about half way through suddenly changes gear and becomes much darker and challenging. The story revolves around Laura (Lolly) Willowes who, early in the 20th century, lives the classic ‘spinster’ life in the household of her brother’s family. It’s an orderly, predictable life - even the move from Somerset to London doesn’t disturb the iron grip Laura’s sister-in-law keeps on the household. 

What starts to bubble through however is Laura’s frustration – her sense of being out of place and of having constantly subdued and edited her own desires in order to fit in. When she makes the shocking decision to leave and find her own life in a small village in the Chiltern Hills – Great Mop – she finds herself being seduced by her proximity to nature. She takes rooms with a phlegmatic local couple and very gradually finds herself integrating with her surroundings and beginning to relish her growing independence and sense of self. Laura notices, but doesn’t put much store by, the sometimes strange behaviour of some of the locals and odd noises at night when she is trying to get to sleep.

When one of her nephews, Titus, who she has always thought of as her favourite, decides to throw up his life in London and join her in Great Mop to become a writer, the book changes gear. He clearly expects his Aunt Lolly to welcome and minister to him and his easy sense of male entitlement invades the spaces she has so carefully burrowed out for herself. A sense of rage slowly wells up in Lolly and, one day, while in the woods she lets out a howl of frustration that is heard by an unexpected listener – the Devil himself. But this is not the Devil of classic Christian fire and brimstone and he’s offering Lolly an interesting proposition…..

I’m not going to say more about the details of the plot and how the story unwinds  in this review because you will want to find out for yourself. Throughout the book I was constantly trying to think of why the book – it’s atmosphere and its enjoyably oblique world view – felt oddly familiar. I’d never read the book before and yet something was echoing in my head that I couldn’t quite pin down. And then I read an article about Warner that spoke of her close friendship with the writer, T.F. Powys and suddenly I realised that Warner’s Lolly Willowes shares many ideas in common with Powys’ Mr Weston’s Good Wine or Unclay – both of which I have read and reviewed fairly recently. Warner’s book appeared in 1926 and Powys’ Mr Weston in 1927 with Unclay in 1931 – could it be that Warner’s work influenced that of Powys? Or, perhaps, the two shared some common inspiration arising from their friendship?

Whatever the truth of that speculation, the fact that Lolly Willowes spent so long in the shadows is unforgiveable. It’s a hugely enjoyable book and I’d urge you to read it for yourself. Popular paperback editions can now be found for under £10.

 

Terry Potter

October 2023