It is the late 1950s; the social milieu is London's colonies of artists and writers. Penelope's husband has died suddenly and needlessly, and she is left to face an uncertain future. She needs understanding, acceptance, the chance to express an identity of her own rather than as one half of a partnership. But these are qualities which her family and friends may not be able to supply...Elizabeth Berridge's crisp and distinctly English style of writing established her as one of the most significant novelists of the post-war years. 'She has an eye for the beauty of humble and familiar things, and a gift for expressing it in a language sharp yet delicate. She has a quiet, wicked sense of humour.' New Statesman

Rose Under Glass

Berridge, Elizabeth

Abacus Uk

When Louise returns to the house where she was brought up, old violence stirs beneath the calm surface. What, for instance, is the significance of the rare Chinese lily carefully raised by her grandmother in the odd greenhouse, perched high up on the side of the garden? Why is the gate at the bottom of the garden kept barred and locked against the common lapping up against its walls? Only by unravelling these secrets which the Braithwaites, in their fierce family pride, have deliberately hidden, or deliberately forgotten, can she arrive at the truth about them and about herself.

Across the Common

Literature & Fiction

Contemporary

Macdonald Co.

Family matters: Sixteen stories

Short Stories & Anthologies

Heinemann

A divorcee approaching middle-age returns to her childhood home in the Welsh mountains, where an old house has been bequeathed to her by the village doctor. As the reason for the legacy begins to emerge, and the truth of old love affairs is revealed, she enters a relationship of her own.

Touch and Go

Romance

Transworld Publishers, Ltd

An overloaded car grinds up a rutted lane, a luggage rack on top, boxes tied here and there, a cat looking out of the window. Harriet Cooper, thirtyish, awkward and vulnerable, is coming to claim her aunt's inheritance, a tumbledown bus. Cousin Magda has already been left the land, the farm and the house, and does not altogether welcome Harriet; her husband Greg, however, is delighted to see her.   But there is another unseen presence in the house, which haunts all three. Scrubbs was the man with whom both Harriet and Magda fell in love, whose internment in a Japanese POW camp and subsequent death is, for Greg, an uncomfortable and menacing memory that one day must be exorcised ...  'Skill subtlety and stylistic assurance ... her moral comedy illuminates life.' Daily Telegraph

Sing Me Who You Are

Literary

Faber and Faber

When Louise returns to the house where she was brought up, old violence stirs beneath the calm surface. What, for instance, is the significance of the rare Chinese lily carefully raised by her grandmother in the odd greenhouse, perched high up on the side of the garden? Why is the gate at the bottom of the garden kept barred and locked against the common lapping up against its walls? Only by unravelling these secrets which the Braithwaites, in their fierce family pride, have deliberately hidden, or deliberately forgotten, can she arrive at the truth about them and about herself.

Touch and go

BANTAM PRESS

Ada Boucher and Stanley Brent are young things at the time of boaters, parasols, champagne and trippers on the Thames. Ada is an apprentice and dreads heading into the low-paid saleswoman position which beckons. Stanley is an assistant at a land broker's establishment. Their relationship is flushed through with na&#1111;ve romance - he is bowled over by her raven-haired beauty, she by his humour and goodness.After a long engagement they marry. A trying honeymoon of fearful discovery for Ada about the realities of marriage is the first sign that their greatest challenges may be compromise and really getting to know each other. As life goes on, in small ways their paths diverge. Some of the hopes and joys they hold dear are cast aside, but there are compensations: Stanley becomes a junior partner in his firm; they purchase a new house in the outer suburbs; two daughters are born. But somehow, their fears and worries seem never quite allayed. Can they turn their lives to the sun? Or is there something in them that keeps them facing the dark?For her first published book, Elizabeth Berridge set herself one of the hardest tasks: the story of a whole life condensed into a tiny number of pages. Using telling detail, both domestic and philosophic, and employing it with astoundingly precise skill in unusual ways, she navigates a path which speaks volumes, giving us an unforgettable picture of a struggling couple trying to understand themselves, the world in which they live, and what it all means. The Story of Stanley Brent was first published in 1945.

The Story of Stanley Brent (Zephyr Books)

Michael Walmer

Skill, subtlety and stylistic assurance ... her moral comedy illumines life. - Daily Telegraph Harriet Cooper bumps up a rutted lane in a Hillman crammed with everything she owns. She has come to claim her inheritance - a large green bus - left to her by her aunt, and moves in with two cats to live a frugal life, much to the chagrin of her cousin who has inherited the rest of the estate. This is a timely reissue of a 1960s novel that deals with the lingering trauma of the Second World War and the dark secrets that families carry, as well as being an early advocate of environmental issues, which chime with such resonance fifty years later. Part of a curated collection of forgotten works by early to mid-century women writers, the British Library Women Writers series highlights the best middlebrow fiction from the 1910s to the 1970s, offering escapism, popular appeal and plenty of period detail to amuse, surprise and inform.

Sing Me Who You Are (British Library Women Writers)

British Library Publishing

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Berridge, Elizabeth. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Berridge, Elizabeth

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Berridge, Elizabeth. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Rose Under Glass

Across the Common

Family matters: Sixteen stories

Touch and Go

Sing Me Who You Are

Across the Common

Rose Under Glass

Touch and go

The Story of Stanley Brent (Zephyr Books)

Sing Me Who You Are (British Library Women Writers)