The Camomile Lawn

Product Information

It is just days before the outbreak of the II World War. Six cousins arrive at the house on a Cornish cliff to enjoy their last summer holiday before the war. Beautiful Calypso, the twins, Oliver, Polly and Walter, are all young and innocent, in their late teens or early twenties, with their whole lives ahead of them. I requested this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to Open Road Media to allow me to read the eBook version of this book. Apart from that, it's a recollection of memories from different characters viewpoints. So there is a lot of telling, not much showing, practically zero psychological depth. It's a novel that helps pass time, but I'm quite certain that there are much better books out there about the same time period. The camomile lawn was just a prop at the country home in Cornwall of Helena and Richard, who were hosting what was to be the last of what had been an annual holiday of their nieces and nephews as World War2 loomed.

The scented camomile lawn at the house by the sea was, for the cousins, the emblem and essence of summer holidays. Some readers may wonder what a camomile lawn is like, even though they drink camomile tea and recognise the fragrance. Camomile, or chamomile, has feathery leaves, a daisy-like flower, and is in fact quite hard to establish as a lawn. (The variety which flourished in Helena and Richard's garden was probably the non-flowering "Treneague", best suited for the purpose and native to the west country.) Sophy, in her 50s and unmarried, remembers at the end "being part of the group which had dined on the lawn on one of the last days of August 1939, sitting round a table lit by candles, with the moon rising over the sea". She may yet get her heart's desire, though that too is suggested with a bitter twist. Like her, anyone who reads this novel must be in love with Oliver, whether at 19 or in his 60s. The book is more than a comedy of manners, more than a sexual entertainment, more than a powerful evocation of the war years, though it is all of those things. With her light touch and uncensored imaginative range, Mary Wesley illuminates the violence and vividness of youth, the griefs and losses of age, the transience of life and of all the people and places we best know and love.The story if full of love, lust, regret and guilt and Mary Wesley managed quite well to go deeper in the feelings of this family. However, they can tolerate some amount of wear once established, and actually release a sweet apple-like aroma when stepped upon. Selecting Species A novel about a group of English cousins at the eve of WWII and what happened to them in the war, with flash forwards to the present day. We see much of the action through the eyes of Sophy, the odd girl out because she's much younger than the others and because of her Anglo-Eurasian race. As in other England at war novels, the war gives these young people opportunities for adventures – sexual ones – that they wouldn't have had in conservative pre-war days. There are some interesting twists in their emotional lives and several of the characters end up in places they never expected to go. I like that one of the women who finds herself behaving unconventionally is a woman in her 40s who had been the model of a good wife. I was obscurely pleased that the femme fatale cousin wears the same perfume I do, Mitsouko. In fact, I think the enjoyment of the book was enhanced by having a picture of the characters in my mind as the story enfolded.

Prepare the planting area by removing weeds and leveling out the soil. Heavy soil can be amended with a mixture of sand and compost. On a hot August evening in 1939, cousins Oliver, Calypso, Polly, Walter, and Sophy spent one last night together, celebrating the end of summer, at the home of their aunt and uncle. Now, forty years later, as the motley cast of characters drive to the funeral of one of their own, they recall how important that night truly was—and all that came after. I should’ve thought,’ said James, ‘that in the war, with the bombing and so on, there wasn’t much time for private life.’ The steely exteriors masking those deep wells of emotion; I suppose this is that fabled "stiff upper lip" of the British. It was endearing seeing the many forms this stiff upper lip took. It also made for a particularly moving realization that one character is indeed deeply in love with another, despite everything she says and does.

Why a Booktrail?

If you like, you can mow or hand trim once in late summer to remove dead flower heads and keep plants looking more manicured. Well, I for one know that Covid-19 is nothing like the War. How do I know? Because I just reread Mary Wesley’s The Camomile Lawn, that’s how. This reread was inspired by listening to the latest episode of Caroline O’Donoghue’s podcast Sentimental Garbage, in which she discusses Wesley’s wartime drama with Kate Young. It was recorded before Coronavirus came along, and contains the phrase ‘I just feel like a national emergency would make everyone kinder and cooler.’ As it turns out, not all national emergencies are the same. Other ground-cover plants you might want to try are nigella seeds (aka kalonji) – these have smaller, dainty flowers than the standard ornamental varieties in shades of white or pale pink – and fenugreek, which looks like a spreading white clover. Both can be sown by simply scattering seeds over bare ground and watering well. From Oliver, whose desperation to prove himself in war ended up as his downfall, to Calypso, whose flirtations landed her in an unlikely marriage with even less likely results, to Sophy, whose secrets from that night haunted her for the rest of her life, each of them recalls the twisted paths of love and betrayal they walked as the country came apart around them under the coming shadow of World War II.