The camomile (Carswell)

After I wrote about Open the door, JRSM highlighted Carswell's other novel, The camomile: "which was wonderful, about an unconventional Frankfurt-trained music student living in Glasgow in the early '20s. Great stuff.". I liked the sound of it, so got myself a cheap copy from Amazon. And I'm pleased to report that I enjoyed it just as much, if not more as Open the door.

Told through letters to her friend Ruby, and journal entries, also written for Ruby, the book is the semi-autobiographical tale of Ellen Carstairs, a young woman living in Glasgow who is a talented pianist and makes her money by teaching music. But she also has ambitions to write and a happy social life, all of which are described and reflected upon in the book. Ellen is vivid character who is considerably enlightened in her views; for example she feels sad that the wedding of one of her best friends seems more about pragmatism and practicality than driven by love. When she herself becomes engaged she is forced to really think about these issues and whether or not she wants to be bounded by convension.

It's shame Carswell didn't go on to write any more novels - she moved into biographies, writing a life of Robert Burns and then the life of DH Lawrence, who was one of her great friends.

This one has been published just the once by Virago in an original green cover, and I would definitely describe it as one of the hidden VMC gems.

Open the door! (Carswell) 201

Open the door is a fantastic novel by Catherine Carswell which relates the story of Joanna Bannerman, a young woman seeking the freedom that has been denied to her by her religious upbringing. The story starts with her as a young girl - we meet her scatterbrained mother and siblings, and see how their haphazard, but otherwise reasonably normal life changes on the death of her father as Juley (the mother) becomes increasingly involved in evangelical circles. As Joanna grows up, the relationship with her mother becomes somewhat strained due to Joanna's apparent lack of spirituality. Joanna's world expands considerably when she attends Italian lessons and ends up getting married and moving to Florence. But this was not straightforward; Joanna has already lost the first man that she was engaged to when he decided that he was not in love with her - this loss continues to haunt Joanna. Her time in Florence is short-lived when she is suddenly widowed, and we follow her back to Glasgow where attends the Glasgow School of Art which really starts to broaden her horizons. She still seeks love, and this time embarking on an affair with a married man, much to Juley's horrow. I found it fascinating reading as I wasn't quite sure what would happen next to Joanna or quite how the book would resolve itself.

Virago have just published this once, with an original green cover. Isn't the hair of the woman on the front absolutely fantastic? The painting by the way is called "Ill omen", by Frances Macdonald and comes from the Hunterian Art Gallery at Glasgow University.