There’s a corner of the blogosphere that is very familiar with Mollie Panter-Downes’ brilliant novel One Fine Day – about a woman experiencing her life and village on one day just after the Second World War. And this corner (yes, it’s the one I’m in, of course) has probably also read some of the Panter-Downes short stories that Persephone have reprinted – and hopefully London War Notes too, non-fiction reporting on WW2. We might even have read some of her later non-fiction. But it’s not often that her earlier fiction is mentioned.
One good reason for that is that it’s nigh-on impossible to get hold of. One of her novels wasn’t even mentioned in her bibliography on Wikipedia until I added it recently – but, yes, she wrote four novels before One Fine Day. They are My Husband Simon, The Chase, Storm Bird – and this one, The Shoreless Sea (1923), published when she was only 17. It was apparently a bestseller, and certainly seems to have gone into many editions quite quickly. So why are there no copies around? What happened to them all?
Well, what happened to mine, mysteriously, is that somebody tore the board cover off. Even more mysterious, the dustjacket survived. Unless it was taken from one copy and put on another? Who knows. But it’s rather lovely to have this pretty dustjacket intact – and The Shoreless Sea has been waiting on my shelves since 2004. It was about time I read it, if only because there are so few copies about that it shouldn’t be left languishing on mine.
The novel is about Deirdre. As the novel opens she is a teenager, and the chief passions in her life are a fondness for all things romantic and a distaste for her mother. Her mother certainly seems quite selfish, and views her children only as a constant reminder of her age. Her escape is into romanticism – including wandering through the woods at the end of their grounds. It’s here that she meets Guy.
This is a real meeting of minds. They are breathlessly poetic with each other, while also realising that they are kindred spirits. It’s essentially love at first sight, though one propelled by not having met a sympathetic mind before. They agree to meet again – but, when Deirdre returns, Guy is not there…
We fast forward a bit, and Deirdre has agreed to marry a jolly sort called Terence. He is kind, fun, a little stupid, and not at all her kindred spirit. But circumstances have led her to this marriage, and she wishes to make the most of it. A couple of years into their marriage (while she is still about 20), and Guy turns up again…
Deirdre laughed a little.
“Wasn’t it Swinburne who wrote ‘Fate is a sea without shore’? That;s exactly what I feel – as if I’m battling all alone in a stormy sea, and that any minute I may sink. Dahlia, if Guy doesn’t go away soon I – I, the last wave of all will swamp me.
That’s where the title comes from if, like me, you aren’t up to speed with your Swinburne. I thought it might be a misquotation from Coleridge, fool that I am.
It was fun to see what Panter-Downes was like as a teenager – and she certainly has the gift for compelling storytelling right from the start. There is a lot less subtlety in this book than in her later work, and it’s very evidently written by somebody whose only experience of romantic love came from reading about it – but, at the same time, there are plenty of novels published in the 1920s by older authors which have much the same feeling. I suppose each period has its variety of dialogue that sounds right in a book but not in real life, and the 1920s lent towards stoical hysteria. An oxymoron of sorts, perhaps, but one that sums up the 1920s for me.
Is this her best book? No – but it’s great fun, not completely predictable, and with some moments of beauty that peek through the heightened saga and give promise of what was to come.
I am completely unfamiliar with her but my library system does own London War Notes, At the Pines, Good Evening Mrs Craven, and what seems to be a New Yorker Collection of short stories.
I love this cover but it occurs to me that these days most if not all women would be more casually dressed as they contemplated the sea – so the image would not be as pleasing.
Guy is virtually unknown as a name in the US although popular in Canada (in my experience, mostly dashing ice hockey players).
Haha! It is quite a dashing name, isn’t it? I only know one Guy in real life, I think, but it was quite popular a century ago – judging by novels of the period, at least.
I discovered book blogs and Mollie Panter-Downes at about the same time and became slightly obsessed with both. One Fine Day is a book I push on everyone possible. I bought a copy of London War Notes for an exorbitant (to me) amount only to have Persephone reprint it a year or two later. But, obviously, there are books of hers I can’t find. I suppose if I can’t read The Shoreless Sea then reading your review of it is the next best thing! I am constantly envious of your book collection.
I did the same! Spent too much on London War Notes – but at least I read it before Persephone reprinted it, unlike when I spent a lot on The Sundial by Shirley Jackson, and hadn’t even opened it before Penguin reprinted it. (It is brilliant!)
“Stoical hysteria” sounds exactly right for this sort of 1920s book. I’ve heard of this one but never actually read a review so thank you for writing it up. Not sure I’m intrigued enough to track it down but it would certainly be interesting to see what MP-D was like as a very young author.
Thanks Claire! Yes, I’m now really intrigued by her progress – but finding The Chase or Storm Bird doesn’t sound super likely.
I join Jennifer’s envy of your book collection (you’ve reviewed at least a couple of novels that I couldn’t find anywhere, and I REALLY did search!). I enjoyed the review of Shoreless Sea — the novel sounds charming and it’s always fun to explore an interesting writer’s lesser known works. Parker-Downs is one of thos authors who’s been on my TBR list for quite some time, probably as a result of the Persephone reprint of London War Notes (which I have). Since I also have (unread) Minnie’s Room & Good Evening Mrs. Craven I’ve quite the backlog. Although her earlier works will have to wait, thanks for putting this one on my radar!
I do have a few very precious books! As we all know, a lot of hunting (and luck!) has to go into building a book collection – particularly if one doesn’t have a huge amount of disposable income. And which of us does?!
How wonderful to have a book like this on your shelves I wonder where all those copies went? I dread to think. I have enjoyed the Panter-Downes short stories and One Fine Day, and have had London War Notes tbr ages. Very interesting to see where she came from.
One Fine Day is just wonderful – definitely one of my favourite Viragos! How odd that her early stuff isn’t so well-known. Must dig out her short stories…
How odd, I do wonder where all those copies went! Sounds like a decent read and I do love that cover!
Stoical hysteria – I love it! Beautiful cover too. I’ve only read the Persephone short story collection, I really must read more by her.
Thanks! And I can’t recommend One Fine Day highly enough.
Interesting that she used a reference to Swinburne in her earliest work in 1923 then produced a very enjoyable biography of the poet “At the Pines” in 1971.
Oo is that what At the Pines is about? I have a copy on my shelf and didn’t realise.
Ah, the cover says, “First cheap edition of this remarkable novel…” so it must, presumably, have been published earlier (and more expensively?). This hints at popularity, but as Liz says, Where did they go?
I think so, and there were many printings of it – bizarre that it’s all disappeared. Though I suppose it’s also nearly a century ago!
I loved One Fine Day but I don’t see myself rushing to read her debut.
It is strange that there are so few used copies in circulation, however. We like to think that classics have “stood the test of time” but sometimes its just a fluke that they are re-discovered and reintroduced to readers.
A LOT of luck is in play in these things, isn’t it?
I’m jealous, Simon – I’ve been looking out for this for years!
I did not realise at the time how lucky I was to find it!
Like many others here, I loved One Fine Day along with the wartime stories from Good Evening, Mrs Craven. It’s interesting to read about this early novel which hints at the promise of what was to come. I’m sort of doing something similar with Patrick Hamilton now that Abacus have reissued much of his work.
Oo have they? I’ll have to look that up – though I do also have plenty of Hamilton novels waiting on my shelves.
I thought this sounded familiar! I love MPD and must have requested this from ILL. It has been so long, however, that I forgot I read it. https://danitorres.typepad.com/workinprogress/2008/06/a-novel-and-a-s.html?cid=6a00d834515bbc69e200e5534c64948833#comment-6a00d834515bbc69e200e5534c64948833 Maybe I need to try and get a copy (again) of Storm Bird!
I do remember seeing you read it, which made feel guilty about neglecting my own copy!
That was a generous review, Simon! I’d been looking out for this for ages, didn’t realise she was only 17 when she wrote it. I’m skim-reading now.
One Fine Day is a masterpiece — and so is P-D’s collected war journalism for The New Yorker which I’d like to think was one of the more effective British Intelligence operations in winning the U.S. public’s support for Britain when it stood alone. It would be wonderful if all of P-D’s early novels from the 1920s and 30s could be brought back into print, at least in Kindle editions..
That would be wonderful! Very glad that My Husband Simon is now available.