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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now drives her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

TELL ME MORE

A certain kind of freedom: Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont & The Men

25/6/2022

11 Comments

 
I’ve linked these two very different novels via the theme of compromised freedom, partly because that’s how I feel myself right now. In the first, an elderly widow frees herself from pity by casting a stranger as her grandson but fears being found out. In the second, women are magically freed from misogyny at a cost of losing the men and boys they love.

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Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor

Newly widowed, and not wanting to be a burden on her daughter, Mrs Palfrey takes up residence at a London hotel. Rather like the care home she is at pains to avoid, she finds herself in the company of other older people whom she’d never choose as friends. With empty days, they have little conversation apart from the predictable dinner menu and boasts about relatives who rarely visit.
 
Keeping up appearances being of paramount importance, when Mrs Palfrey’s grandson fails to appear, she grabs the opportunity to pass off as kin a young man she meets when she takes a fall outside his flat. As a budding writer, Ludo sees her as material and is happy to play along. It’s an unusual friendship, but it seems to work, being the source of the novel’s wry humour, rendered plausible by the author’s skill.
 
I’d seen book bloggers praising this novel for some time, but hadn’t got round to reading it. I’m so glad I finally picked it up. First published in 1971, it’s a lovely story of ageing, friendship and the small deceptions that can support us through tough times. Click on the image for a blog post about other novels with older characters. If this appeals, you might also like my own novel about an older woman in an institution making the best of a sorry situation.
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The Men by Sandra Newman

Jane is camping with her husband and young son when the pair of them go missing. Locked in fear and grief, she searches for them for days. Yet, when she drives down the mountain, she discovers she’s not the only one strangely bereaved: every male has disappeared.
 
At first there’s chaos, as it turns out the infrastructure was largely run by men. Yet, freed from the male gaze, and despite their pain at losing people they’ve loved, the women are more relaxed. Perhaps they can build a better world.
 
Soon they discover strange footage online showing ranks of men and boys marching like zombies through a devastated landscape. Some watchers become addicted. Others swear it’s a scam. But when they recognise their own loved ones on-screen, they can’t give up.
 
Meanwhile, Jane has connected with an old friend, Evangelyne, a promising politician, already famous for her book On Commensalism. The two become lovers. Both have interesting back stories in which they have committed crimes through being abused by men, although Evangelyne has been hurt more by racism than misogyny.
 
Having enjoyed the author’s previous novel, The Heavens, I was prepared for another thought-provoking, zany and sometimes confusing narrative. A strange cli-fi dystopian novel about gender and racism. Thanks to British publishers Granta for my advance proof copy.
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With my ongoing health issues, I’m finding it hard to tune into this week’s flash fiction prompt of freedom. While it’s great to be free of the hospital, and to be definitely getting stronger, and not free of disease. Apologies for another blast of narcissism.

It’s just a bigger cage

It was over a month since she’d sat behind the wheel. Would her limbs remember what to do? She’d never associated driving with freedom, except as the means to find more beautiful places to walk.

Yet it felt good to join the procession of traffic, of people fit enough to go to work. In the car, she could move as fast as they could, although she might not be travelling as far.

On her previous journey down this road, her ailment was a mystery. Now she mourns the health she’s lost as she collects a new pack of pills.
Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
11 Comments
Charli Mills
27/6/2022 05:59:36 pm

Anne, there are times we need to go within and tinker around our own emotions, experiences and loss. I've been teaching creative writing through 99-words to caregivers at the VA and writing is healing. As painful as the loss of one's health can be, I don't think it narcissistic at all to explore this new experience. Your 99-word story explains unexpected freedoms found in things able bodied people take for granted. It's poignant, and thought provoking as any of your fictional pieces.

Two interesting books. A lot of women might enjoy a world without men. At least in the US we'd have body sovereignty and less guns if the men disappeared overnight.

Reply
Anne
28/6/2022 03:17:04 pm

Thanks, Charli, Thanks, Charli, as I was posting this I did think about the loss of freedom for women in certain states of the US but ran out of time to write about that. I generally don't find it so satisfying to create stories out of my own misfortunes but better to draw on the emotion to write about a different situation. Maybe I'll manage that this week!

Reply
Charli Mills
30/6/2022 04:16:24 am

It's a new space to explore in your writing, Anne.

Anne
1/7/2022 11:47:07 am

Indeed it is.

Norah Colvin
28/6/2022 12:27:34 pm

Anne, I'm sorry disease as robbed you of your former freedom and ease. It sounds like you were taken by surprise, and not a good one at that. I hope your medications have you trekking the moors again soon. There's no harm, and perfectly good reasons, for focusing on yourself as you return to health. Sending wishes on wings over land and sea.

Reply
Anne
28/6/2022 03:23:47 pm

Thanks, Norah, it's certainly been a shock and I'm frustrated with the slow recovery. But I can manage to trek the fields near my house, albeit taking twice as long as I used to and getting breathless up the tiniest inclines. At least I'm getting outside.I hope things are also picking up for you.

Reply
D. Avery link
30/6/2022 06:46:45 pm

I think it's quite normal to talk about one's near misses. Don't apologize for it. You're working it out for yourself. It will work its way into fiction once you've processed your experience and feelings and made it somewhat less personal. I'm just glad to see you back at the Ranch!

Reply
Anne
1/7/2022 11:48:01 am

Thank you, it's good to be back.

Reply
Anne
1/7/2022 11:54:42 am

For what it's worth, my comments on your freedom pieces that wouldn't show on your blog:
I enjoyed both pieces but the second makes me think of your national anthem. So many Americans are not free at all. (Likewise many around the world.)

Reply
Liz H'H
1/7/2022 04:15:51 pm

I, too, miss rambling, through forests and fields.
After a nasty flip and tumble into a street about 3 months that landed me in PT and Chiro, on ice and NSAIDS, with a stretch & strengthening routine in between, I'm better.
But still, I'm prone to fall (I did, several times in these months of recovery) and feel like in-nature rambles are gone for good. My sympathies for you. May our healing continue!

Reply
Anne
2/7/2022 06:54:18 pm

So sorry about your fall, Liz, and hope you can avoid a repeat performance in the future. I do hope I can get back to rambling but, at the moment, it's not so much the uneven ground that bothers me but getting breathless at the slightest incline.

Reply



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