KEY POINTS:
This book is a pointed reminder on how far the Western World came socially during the 20th century, despite the horrors of war and despotism.
It consists of oral history excerpts of people talking of Edwardian lives. The era begins when uncaring old Queen Victoria died in 1901. Kids who had been hungry and ill-clothed all their miserable lives were cajoled into mourning as though she was some kind of fairy godmother. I guess an excuse could be that Victoria had been around so long as part of the social landscape, her departure was a bit of a jolt.
Her death occasioned a memory, both funny and poignant, from Clement Williams, of the Oxfordshire Light Infantry, a unit sent to Windsor to attend the funeral. The coffin was to be placed on a gun carriage and hauled by horses up the hill from the town to Windsor Castle, followed by a Royal Navy guard of honour. The day was extremely cold. The horses became over-excited and fractious. A naval officer offered his men in place of the horses, so the sailors were harnessed to the gun carriage and off they went. They were late but that aged playboy, Edward VII, flanked by his nephew, Kaiser William, gave the sailors the royal salute. It would not surprise me to learn they also got a nosebag of oats each as a reward.
The book is divided into memories of childhood, of work, of home and daily life, travel, politics and the military, and contributors come from most walks of life, including the Keppel family and Lady Charlotte Bonham Carter. Most of the entries are only a few lines but some of the more interesting reminiscences run two or three pages. There is much repetition but, read intelligently, it offers a vivid perspective on England a century ago.
Anyone who insists on the immorality of contraception and the myth of the good old days should read the not untypical entry: "We had a death in our family every year. You see, there were 13 children, and eight died between me and my eldest sister ... They died mostly of convulsions but they were all underfed, too."
Stories of hardship caused by penury proliferate through the book. There are tales, too, of gangs beating up police, of summary justice by police, and among the people themselves in the slums. Their reminiscences make it clear they were not, as is sometimes supposed, poor but happy. They were poor and miserable, although they don't whine about the past because almost all of them imply they were resigned to their lives, as though no alternative was possible.
Among the most gripping memories come from former suffragettes, recounting the harsh justice and indignities imposed upon them two decades after women had the vote in New Zealand. They were smart, brave and tenacious.
Every line reminded me of a quote from Orson Welles: "Even if the good old days never existed, the fact that we can conceive of such a world is, in fact, an affirmation of the human spirit. That the imagination of man is capable of creating the myth of a more open, a more generous time, is not a sign of our folly."
- Harper Perennial, $30
* Gordon Mclauchlan is an Auckland reviewer.
