Imatge de l'autor

Pamela Frankau (1908–1967)

Autor/a de The Willow Cabin

38+ obres 542 Membres 15 Ressenyes 5 preferits

Sobre l'autor

Crèdit de la imatge: Pamela Frankau

Sèrie

Obres de Pamela Frankau

The Willow Cabin (1949) 155 exemplars
A Wreath for the Enemy (1954) 129 exemplars
The Winged Horse (1953) 104 exemplars
Sing for Your Supper (1963) 28 exemplars
The Bridge (1957) 22 exemplars
I Find Four People (1935) 14 exemplars
Slaves of the Lamp (1965) 12 exemplars
Over the Mountains (1967) 12 exemplars
Road Through The Woods (1960) 8 exemplars
Ask Me No More (1958) 7 exemplars
Colonel Blessington (1968) 6 exemplars
She and I (1974) 3 exemplars
To The Moment of Triumph (1953) 3 exemplars
The Offshore Light (1977) 2 exemplars
Devil We Know (1971) 2 exemplars
No News (1938) 2 exemplars
Laughter in the sun 1 exemplars
The foolish apprentices (1974) 1 exemplars
Walk into my parlour (1933) 1 exemplars
A democrat dies 1 exemplars
"I was the man" 1 exemplars
Jezebel 1 exemplars
Some new planet 1 exemplars
Villa Anodyne 1 exemplars
Fly now, falcon 1 exemplars
Tassel-gentle 1 exemplars
Three : a novel 1 exemplars
The fig tree 1 exemplars

Obres associades

Etiquetat

Coneixement comú

Nom normalitzat
Frankau, Pamela
Nom oficial
Frankau, Pamela Sydney
Data de naixement
1908-01-03
Data de defunció
1967-06-08
Lloc d'enterrament
Hampstead Cemetery, Fortune Green Road, West Hampstead, Camden, London, England, UK
Gènere
female
Nacionalitat
UK
Lloc de naixement
London, England, UK
Lloc de defunció
London, England, UK
Causa de la mort
cancer
Llocs de residència
England, UK
USA
Educació
Burgess Hill School for Girls, Sussex, England, UK
Professions
novelist
journalist
short story writer
Relacions
Frankau, Gilbert (father)
Wolfe, Humbert (lover)
Webster, Margaret (lover)
Frankau, Ronald (uncle)
Danby, Frank (grandmother)
Raymond, Diana (cousin|typist)
Biografia breu
Pamela Frankau was born in London, England to a literary family of Anglo-Jewish origins. Her father was the novelist Gilbert Frankau and her paternal grandmother was writer Julia Frankau, who used the pseudonym Frank Danby. Her grandmother's brother James Davis was a musical comedy librettist under the name Owen Hall. Gilbert Frankau abandoned the family in about 1919, and Pamela and her sister had little to do with him until they were nearly grown up. They were sent to Burgess Hill School, a boarding school in Sussex. She began writing at an early age and her first novel, Marriage of Harlequin (1927), was published when she was 19 years old. It was well received and she published 20 novels by age 30. She also wrote short stories and worked as a journalist for The Mirror and The Daily Sketch. She had a nine-year affair with Humbert Wolfe, a married poet, which ended with his death in 1940. During World War II, she worked for the BBC, the Ministry of Food, and then the Auxiliary Territorial Service. Raised an Anglican, she converted to the Roman Catholic faith, described later in her book Shaken in the Wind (1948). In 1945, she married Marshall Dill, an American academic and former naval intelligence officer, with whom she lived in the USA. Their only child died in infancy. She returned to England and divorced in 1951. Her most successful and popular novel, The Willow Cabin, was published in 1949. Some of her novels, including The Bridge (1957), were fantasy or science fiction. She wrote about her distant relationship with her father in Pen to Paper (1961). She also wrote an autobiographical novel, I Find Four People (1935).

Membres

Ressenyes

Wonderfully written; it follows a set of english characters formative in the protagonist's Penelope's growth. Set initially in a hotel on the French Riviera, it transitions to lengthy sequences where each character is developed - or better, grows as an individual - separately. From Don and Eve's (the Smugs) first interactions with Penelope, it leaps across a number of years to spend time with Don as he encounters his soon to be friend Caruso. It steps across time in this manner among the characters as the narrative unfolds. The writing itself is technically wonderful and the book is a marvelous cycle - it ends where it began.… (més)
 
Marcat
vscauzzo | Hi ha 3 ressenyes més | Jan 29, 2024 |
The Willow Cabin by Pamela Frankau; (5*)

I just finished this and didn't want it to end. The Willow Cabin is nearly the perfect book for me. I loved the entire book. I loved the characters, the building/development of them, the interaction of them, the plot and storyline, the very air about my head as I was reading this one.

"Then on my tongue the taste is sour
Of all I ever did."

"What will they give me when journey's done?
Your own room to be quiet in, Son!"

I owe my friend a debt of thanks for sending this particular book to me. It has replaced so many others in my mind and heart. Would that all of you should feel about a book the way that I feel and felt as reading this one.
It is definitely a 10 out of 5 for me.
I would really like to just sit and revel upon The Willow Cabin. I know it will linger long on my mind.
… (més)
6 vota
Marcat
rainpebble | Hi ha 4 ressenyes més | Mar 10, 2019 |
 
Marcat
pinkhouselady | Hi ha 1 ressenya més | May 27, 2018 |
Over the Mountains is the third novel in Pamela Frankau’s Clothes of a King’s Son trilogy, which follow the fortunes of a theatrical family over almost twenty years. In Sing for your Supper and Slaves to the Lamp – we saw the Weston children grow up in the shadow of PhilipWeston; their Pierrot star father and start lives of their own. Gerald following in his actor father’s footsteps, Sarah’ who embarks on a writing career, before marrying an older wealthy man, while Thomas the youngest; adored by everyone struggles with the gift of spiritualism.

Over the Mountains opens in 1940 – and Europe is at War. In London, Blanche – once nanny to the Weston children and still a family favourite, moves in with their grandmother Mrs Murray to help her manage the house in wartime. They are a rather wonderful double act – but take a bit of a back seat in this novel.

“Mrs Murray professed to look forward to the air raids. She maintained every precautionary device; sand-buckets; buckets of water; the stirrup-pump; the regulation shovel for dealing with incendiaries. She had bought what they called a siren suit last September. These were not her only preparations. She had ordered three dozen bottles of red wine on Mr Percy’s account, the day Hitler invaded Holland. They were taking up two shelves and all the floor-space in the linen cupboard.
One had to laugh.”

Thomas is in France, having joined up early in the war. Thomas has been reported missing, captured by a German patrol, a fellow prisoner has confirmed seeing Thomas shot. Blanche and Mrs Murray refuse to believe the news – and they are right to – Thomas was merely wounded, later rescued by a French family. The story of Thomas’s extraordinary adventures on the continent are told in chapters entitled The Unwritten Notebook.

The only other member of the family experiencing any kind of active service is Rab, daughter to American actress Paula who married Philip Weston in the 1920s. Thomas and Rab had always been special to one another – theirs is a bond which goes beyond family. Rab is rather changed; part of an ambulance unit – working in France. During this time Rab meets Noel, a cool, assured young woman who is head of the Comité de Quatorze. Realising she has strong feelings for Noel – Rab ends up in her bed, throwing her feelings for Thomas into confusion.

“ ‘Did you try and fix me?’
‘What is this, the catechism?
‘Well did you?’
A pause before Noel’s voice said, sounding amused. ‘I just thought vaguely ‘that would be nice,’ but my intentions were honourable till I saw you sitting on the step of the truck.’
‘What happened then?’
‘I was so pleased to see you it shook me.’
‘And then?’
‘And then alas for vows of good behaviour. Idiotic to make them in a war, anyway, life’s too short.’
‘Think we’ll be killed?’
‘Shouldn’t wonder. If I’m killed.’ Noel said, ‘Come and walk by my grave. I’ll watch you walking and I’ll like that.’

Meanwhile in America Philip and Paula are still in Hollywood, and apart from waiting for news of Thomas, and letters from Rab, life continues pretty much the same for the theatrical couple. There is no sign yet of the US entering the fray. Sarah is still nursing her terrible grief brought about by the death of her husband, now she has to deal with the probable loss of Thomas too. Philip Weston accepts the reports of his youngest son’s death, mourning him dramatically as if playing a part. Sarah is disgusted by many the attitudes she sees around her – desperate to get back to England, to be in some way a part of the war that has taken Thomas. In New York, lives Gerald, now married to Mary Castle an American actress, the couple have become a 1940s style celebrity brand – unfortunately they can’t bear one another – and Gerald is looking for ways to put some distance between them. He briefly considers enlisting, but instead signs a contract to star in a war film. Sarah finally leaves America, bound for England via Lisbon, where she spends weeks stranded – waiting, along with other flotsam of the war in Europe – for a passage home. Here Sarah seeks Miles, an old trusted friend, once an employee of Paula, and driver to Rab when she was a scruffy twelve-year-old, he is now a man with his finger in a number of pies, someone apparently who can get things done. In Lisbon, Sarah also runs into Rab.

Pamela Frankau tells a wonderful story in this final novel of her trilogy. Showing Thomas to be stronger than we may have ever expected – surviving against the odds – his story seems almost touched by a special kind of magic. As he fights his way across France and Spain toward Portugal, he is imprisoned, encounters a mad countess, finds and loses friends – and through it all he carries the memory of Rab – and that one glorious summer with his family in France – which he always calls ‘the twenty-nine summer’ – a time of perfection – a time he recalls with both nostalgia for the past and hope for the future.
… (més)
1 vota
Marcat
Heaven-Ali | Dec 3, 2017 |

Llistes

Premis

Potser també t'agrada

Autors associats

Estadístiques

Obres
38
També de
4
Membres
542
Popularitat
#45,993
Valoració
4.0
Ressenyes
15
ISBN
31
Preferit
5

Gràfics i taules