{"id":3948,"date":"2022-08-10T07:03:29","date_gmt":"2022-08-10T11:03:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/?p=3948"},"modified":"2022-08-10T07:03:30","modified_gmt":"2022-08-10T11:03:30","slug":"book-review-strange-journey-by-maud-cairnes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/2022\/08\/10\/book-review-strange-journey-by-maud-cairnes\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review\/\/Strange Journey by Maud Cairnes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Polly Wilkinson lives in Baring Road with her husband and two children. She has a nice life, a happy marriage, and she doesn’t have much to complain about. However, one day she is leaning on her front gate when a car gets held up near her house. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It was a grand looking car, low and long, and dark blue, a Rolls Royce, as I know now. Looking at it in the concentrated way in which one gazes at an object when one is too tired to move one’s eyes elsewhere, I became aware of a woman seated inside.<\/p>

Suddenly I felt a longing to change places with her, to get into that big, comfortable looking car, lean back in the soft cushions I felt sure that it contained, while the chauffeur made it glide away through the dusk to some pleasant house where there would be efficient servants and tea waiting, with a silver teapot, thin china, and perhaps hot scones, nice deep arm chairs to sit in, and magazines lying on the table. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Polly goes in the house and gets on with her day but a week or so later she remembers that longing she had to change places. She suddenly feels dizzy and when she opens her eyes again she has done just that. She is in the body of Lady Elizabeth Forrester and she is surrounded by all the comforts she imagined. She is only there briefly the first time but, over the next few months she finds herself transported there again and again. She muddles her way through an unfamiliar house, encounters people she doesn’t know who know her, and deals with dogs who inexplicably growl at her even though they are supposed to be hers. Each time she finds out a bit more about Lady Elizabeth and her life and slowly she realizes that when she is in Lady Elizabeth’s body Lady Elizabeth is in hers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are some funny moments in the book. Polly is very good at Bridge but Lady Elizabeth is not so she manages to flabbergast them all by winning. She also baffles her maid by insisting on wearing too much jewelry one evening. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Foley put me into an evening dress made of black velvet that showed a lot of back. It seemed rather plain to me, I looked very slim and straight in it. She then opened a big jewel case in which there were several tiers. I thought it looked like a real treasure chest, when I saw brooches and necklaces, bracelets, ear-rings and rings, all in velvet compartments. I just stared. Late for dinner or not I had no intention of hurrying over my choice. I took a sort of collar of emeralds and diamonds, and put it round my neck; it looked wonderful. Then I found some emerald and diamond ear-rings, long ones, and some bangles; I put on two or three of these and a big diamond brooch like a spray, that cheered up the dress a lot. <\/p>

Then I saw the pearls–three long ropes of them–and one shorter one. I put the ropes on and looked happily at my reflection in the mirror.<\/p>

“I think I want something on my head now,” said I, wondering if it was a grand enough party for a tiara.<\/p>

Foley, who had been looking rather stunned, smiled respectfully as though I had made a joke. I gathered that it was not a tiara occasion.<\/p>

I selected another very pretty brooch, pinned it on my shoulder and told Foley that she might close the case now. She looked as though she did not quite understand what I meant, and stared at me as I sailed out of the room.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Eventually, Polly and Lady Elizabeth manage to contact each other and they find that they have some element of control over the swaps. They help each other in their own lives, sometimes simply by having a different perspective on things. The story is always told from Polly’s viewpoint and the reader only gets glimpses of what happens when Lady Elizabeth is in her place. Polly’s children beg for her to continue stories Lady Elizabeth told them. Lady Elizabeth is a huge success at a dinner Polly dreaded. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was a charming book and I liked both Polly and Lady Elizabeth. It is set in the time in which it is written, the 1930s, and provides an interesting window into two different social classes of the time. The author, Maud Cairnes, was actually Lady Maud Kathleen Cairnes Plantagenet Hastings Curzon-Herrick and therefore would have been more familiar with the world Lady Elizabeth inhabited than that of Polly Wilkinson. Her light touch in writing brings to life the reactions of middle class Polly to the world of Lady Elizabeth and makes both women appealing characters. Cairnes wrote one other book that was published, The Disappearing Duchess<\/em>, but it is not readily available. That is a pity because I enjoyed this book immensely and would love to read more by her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My thanks to the British Library for the review copy of this book. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Polly Wilkinson lives in Baring Road with her husband and two children. She has a nice life, a happy marriage, and she doesn’t have much to complain about. However, one day she is leaning on her front gate when a car gets held up near her house. It was a grand looking car, low and long, and dark blue, a Rolls Royce, as I know now. Looking at it in the concentrated way in which one gazes at an object when one is too tired to move one’s eyes elsewhere, I became aware of a woman seated inside. Suddenly I felt a longing to change places with her, to get into that big, comfortable looking car, lean back in the soft cushions I felt sure that it contained, while the chauffeur made it glide away through the dusk to some pleasant house where there would be efficient servants and tea waiting, with a silver teapot, thin china, and perhaps hot scones, nice deep arm chairs to sit in, and magazines lying on the table. Polly goes in the house and gets on with her day but a week or so later she remembers that longing she had to change places. She suddenly feels dizzy and when she opens her eyes again she has done just that. She is in the body of Lady Elizabeth Forrester and she is surrounded by all the comforts she imagined. She is only there briefly the first time but, over the next few months she finds herself transported there again and again. She muddles her way through an unfamiliar house, encounters people she doesn’t know who know her, and deals with dogs who inexplicably growl at her even though they are supposed to be hers. Each time she finds out a bit more about Lady Elizabeth and her life and slowly she realizes that when she is in Lady Elizabeth’s body Lady Elizabeth is in hers. There are some funny moments in the book. Polly is very good at Bridge but Lady Elizabeth is not so she manages to flabbergast them all by winning. She also baffles her maid by insisting on wearing too much jewelry one evening. Foley put me into an evening dress made of black velvet that showed a lot of back. It seemed rather plain to me, I looked very slim and straight in it. She then opened a big jewel case in which there were several tiers. I thought it looked like a real treasure chest, when I saw brooches and necklaces, bracelets, ear-rings and rings, all in velvet compartments. I just stared. Late for dinner or not I had no intention of hurrying over my choice. I took a sort of collar of emeralds and diamonds, and put it round my neck; it looked wonderful. Then I found some emerald and diamond ear-rings, long ones, and some bangles; I put on two or three of these and a big diamond brooch like a spray, that cheered up the dress a lot. Then I saw the pearls–three long ropes of them–and one shorter one. I put the ropes on and looked happily at my reflection in the mirror. “I think I want something on my head now,” said I, wondering if it was a grand enough party for a tiara. Foley, who had been looking rather stunned, smiled respectfully as though I had made a joke. I gathered that it was not a tiara occasion. I selected another very pretty brooch, pinned it on my shoulder and told Foley that she might close the case now. She looked as though she did not quite understand what I meant, and stared at me as I sailed out of the room. Eventually, Polly and Lady Elizabeth manage to contact each other and they find that they have some element of control over the swaps. They help each other in their own lives, sometimes simply by having a different perspective on things. The story is always told from Polly’s viewpoint and the reader only gets glimpses of what happens when Lady Elizabeth is in her place. Polly’s children beg for her to continue stories Lady Elizabeth told them. Lady Elizabeth is a huge success at a dinner Polly dreaded. This was a charming book and I liked both Polly and Lady Elizabeth. It is set in the time in which it is written, the 1930s, and provides an interesting window into two different social classes of the time. The author, Maud Cairnes, was actually Lady Maud Kathleen Cairnes Plantagenet Hastings Curzon-Herrick and therefore would have been more familiar with the world Lady Elizabeth inhabited than that of Polly Wilkinson. Her light touch in writing brings to life the reactions of middle class Polly to the world of Lady Elizabeth and makes both women appealing characters. Cairnes wrote one other book that was published, The Disappearing Duchess, but it is not readily available. That is a pity because I enjoyed this book immensely and would love to read more by her. My thanks to the British Library for the review copy of this book.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3952,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3948"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3953,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3948\/revisions\/3953"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}