13-06-2025
Forgotten classics take centre stage in this week's Retros: THE STEPDAUGHTER by Caroline Blackwood, FROM SCENES LIKE THESE by Gordon M. Williams, THE WOMAN IN THE HALL by G. B. Stern
THE STEPDAUGHTER by Caroline Blackwood (Virago £9.99, 128pp)
It's hard to think of a blacker portrait of betrayal and damage, conveyed in so few pages, than this debut novel.
The narrator, J, writes a series of imaginary letters in her head after her wealthy lawyer husband abandons her in a fabulous New York apartment. But she is left with her silent, compulsively overeating teenage stepdaughter Renata, whom she despises so much that 'one often has a longing to try to damage her even more'.
Her lifestyle is contingent on looking after Renata, until a breathtaking twist reveals a different perspective and J is forced to confront a new narrative – for all of them. Wickedly witty, it is the fate of the pathetically passive Renata that haunts in the closing pages.
From Scenes Like These is available now from the Mail Bookshop
FROM SCENES LIKE THESE by Gordon M. Williams (Picador £10.99, 352pp)
Despite being bright at school, working-class Duncan leaves aged 15, preferring harsh, underpaid labouring on a local farm with brutal Blackie and womanising Telfer, who has dreams of emigrating to Canada.
Duncan's vision of what is manly is distorted by his cold, paralysed father, local footballers and the economic decline of 1950s Scotland. But when he meets middle-class Elsa, he believes, momentarily, in love and a future. At the same time, secretly pregnant Mary arrives at the
farm, desperate to secure someone with prospects for her unborn child.
This 1969 Booker-shortlisted portrait of small-town claustrophobia, violence and unfulfilled lives is bleak, bitter and brilliantly believable.
THE WOMAN IN THE HALL by G. B. Stern (British Library £9.99, 352pp)
Single mother Lorna Blake wants nothing but the best for her disadvantaged daughters and, in the London Society of the 1930s, there's plenty of spare cash to be found – if you know how to work the system. So, Lorna spins tales of poverty, sickness and abuse as she 'grifts' her way into homes, dragging her reluctant girls on the 'visits'.
But the past catches up with Lorna, and both of her daughters will be forced to develop their own talents, as their mother, when cornered, proves a ruthless survivor.
Criss-crossing continents, this is rich with humour and eccentric characters – although Lorna, as befits a con artist, is unknowable until the end.
