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A review by schnauzermum
The Vet's Daughter by Barbara Comyns
4.0
Set in Edwardian London, this novel combines the realistic and the gothic. It boasts one of literature’s monstrous fathers, a crumbling house, much macabre detail (a rug made from the skin of a Great Dane, for example), and some seriously funny writing. Here’s Mrs Churchill, the housekeeper, talking about her Christmas shopping:
‘Vera’s boy is to have a humming-top and my other grandson, handcuffs. Just toy ones, of course, but he may as well get used to them; you never know what may happen in life, do you?’
This is another delight I discovered through the splendid Backlisted podcast. I don’t know why Barbara Comyns isn’t more widely read.
‘Vera’s boy is to have a humming-top and my other grandson, handcuffs. Just toy ones, of course, but he may as well get used to them; you never know what may happen in life, do you?’
This is another delight I discovered through the splendid Backlisted podcast. I don’t know why Barbara Comyns isn’t more widely read.