Following my usual construct of finding an appropriate theme, it’s a no-brainer to sit back and swelter with heat-related titles this month.
The obvious one that springs to mind is Maggie O’Farrell’s Instruction for a Heatwave. It is set in 1976 during the height of the infamous British heatwave of that year, and examines the fallout for one family when the father walks out of the family home, never to be seen again.
And although it was a huge success in 2013, I’m actually going to chose another book set in 1976 – Graham Joyce’s The Year of the Ladybird, coincidentally also published in 2013, which somewhat slipped under the public radar but was much praised by the critics. It is a ghost story, named for the plague of ladybirds which swept across the UK in the extreme heat. College student David Barwise secures a summer job in a rundown holiday resort in Skegness, chosen because of a photo he found of his father – who died when David was three – taken in the town. Among the heat and the ladybirds, David entertains the visitors and gets to know the other staff … and has an unwitting encounter with the National Front. There are strange sightings of a man in an electric blue suit and a child, who only he sees and only in the distance. One reviewer wrote ‘it is a jewel of a novel that blends gentle nostalgia, teenage angst and glimpses of the dark, unreal places where loss and memory mingle.’
Two books, two young protagonists. Both make catastrophic mistakes, brought about by momentary actions taken in stifling heat. Although published nearly 50 years apart, L.P. Hartley’s The Go Between and Ian McEwan’s Atonement both show the everlasting consequences of a seemingly trivial event. Leo, the boy in The Go Between, acts out of kindness and love for Marian, the daughter of an upper-class household, who is in a relationship with Ted, a tenant farmer, and carries messages between them. Ultimately, his increasingly unwilling involvement falls horribly apart when Marian’s mother forces him to accompany her and discovers them having sex. The ensuing trauma leads to awful conclusions.
A very similar set of events occurs in Atonement, with Briony acting as postgirl between upper-class Cecilia and Robbie, the housekeeper’s son. In this instance Briony is only half-innocent when the couple are discovered, and she tells her over-imagined version of the affair, again with devastating long-term consequences.
Both books are considered to be the finest works of their authors, and both have been adapted into equally compelling films. They encapsulate the element that always touches me in any work – a random action that affects (mainly) innocent people in life-changing ways.
So to our main contender to represent this current scorcher – the perfectly titled Heat Wave by Penelope Lively. Set during a sweltering English summer, it follows a mother helplessly watching her daughter’s marriage dissolve under the weight of infidelity – a tragedy that painfully mirrors her own past. The oppressive, suffocating heat serves as a physical metaphor for the hidden resentments, unsaid words and jealousy bubbling within the family.
You’ve been warned – stay cool!
To track down your own copy of any of these, visit Victoria Sturgess’ Black Pug Books in Wimborne – look for it opposite the Tivoli Theatre.
