If you know anything about Stella Gibbons, then it is probably her first novel: Cold Comfort Farm. In this book Aunt Ada Doom famously saw ‘something nasty in the woodshed’ and this experience, never explained or clarified, scarred her for life.
There was indeed something ‘nasty in the woodshed’ in the early life of the author. Her father terrorised nannies and maids and one gets the impression that there was more. How closely it impinged upon the childhood of Stella one can only imagine.
‘Cold Comfort Farm’ was her only famous novel and she apparently referred to it as ‘that book.’ Interesting how artists, including writers, actors and musicians, deal with something that becomes outstandingly famous and overshadows the rest of their work. Munch comes straight to mind with his highly unsettling picture: ‘The Scream.’ There is so much more that is interesting but unknown to most. Similarly with the composer Ravel, known for the interminable ‘Bolero.’ Does history know how he felt about this? The writer AA Milne, a renowned playwright for part of his life, became forever associated with the stories of Winnie- the -Pooh and he was definitely not happy with this. I have heard Aled Jones say that he long ago made his peace with the ‘walking in the air’ song from ‘The Snowman.’ A sensible attitude I think.
Anyway, the book I have just read is actually at the other end of the list. It is her last novel: ‘The Woods in Winter,’ published in 1970. I knew nothing whatsoever about this story, where it was going or how it might end. Ivy Gower is the main character, a charwoman from north London who receives an unexpected letter that changes her life. She has been left a remote cottage in rural Buckinghamshire by a virtually unknown uncle. She is delighted to live a quiet, solitary life, funded by pensions from dead husbands. Interestingly some people see her as a wise woman with slight suspicions of witchery. Would this still really have been the case in rural communities post World War 2? However, it is difficult to remain truly solitary and surprising events occur that Ivy could not have foreseen.
Virginia Woolf called the books of Stella Gibbons the ‘Loam and love child school of fiction.’ I feel sure she was intending to be insulting and disparaging. I do though get just an inkling of what she means. This is not great literature but that does not mean it is not worth a few hours of my time reading it.