My Husband Simon by Mollie Panter-Downes

Sure enough, they marry hastily, seemingly bound only by their mutual attraction (consummated before their marriage, in a shocking scene for a 1931 novel) and, unsuited for running a house and determined not to have children, Nevis is soon facing an uneven battle to write while surrounded by household mini-dramas, a Servant Problem and a husband who just does not understand why she needs to write. I thought, ‘He’s attractive.’ I felt suddenly angry and helpless, as though I knew that the nice, orderly little pattern of my life was going to be broken up. Already a successful author, Nevis has a sinking feeling when she meets a startlingly attractive man at her best female friend’s house in the country (the descriptions of her friendship with Cora, light on the surface but running deep, are a lovely feature of the book, too). Panter-Downes had had great success with a youthful novel and so you can see some autobiographical reflections in this fun novel that centres around a woman writer who has had great success with a youthful novel … The whole novel basically looks at the need for a room of one’s own, and the issue of the pram in the hall that stops women from writing. But in my heart I did not really pity myself.

There were times when I indulged in a little easy self-pity because I was impelled by this ruthless, capricious force to write down thing on sheets of paper and tear them up again to labour on, stumbling and cursing and hoping. Mollie Panter-Downes – “My Husband Simon” Aren’t the copies just gorgeous, by the way, all different patterns, and embossed and smooth, with the silhouette in the middle. Ali very kindly gave me this copy after she’d somehow ended up with two, and it’s about the only British Library Women Writers book (see the whole range here) I hadn’t read, now I’m on their reviewing roster (thank you again, BL!). Once I’d done my duty by my review books and NetGalley ebooks last month I decided to pull a novel off the physical TBR shelf.

My Husband Simon by Mollie Panter-Downes