Inspired by Simon at Stuck-in-a-book and by the e-reading-list I've
joined but don't contribute to enough, I have just managed to finish
reading Miss Hargreaves. Written by Frank Baker (of whom I certainly
had not heard) in the 1940s, this is described on the cover as 'A
Strange and Charming Book'. Strange it certainly is, but charming does not really encompass the effect of this work, which has taken me a long time to read because I didn't find it at all comfortable. That is not to say that I didn't enjoy it -- I kept returning to it and dipping in -- but it was not the sort of book I felt like curling up with in bed of an evening, my preferred time and place for reading.
Narrated by young Norman Huntley, an organist in a cathedral town, it tells the story of the eponymous Miss H, who is, essentially, a creation of Norman's own somewhat bizarre imagination. A creation, though, who lives and breathes and affects Norman's life in a number of ways, many of them far from comfortable. On holiday in Ireland with his friend Henry, Norman has visited a small out-of-the way church and, in conversation with the vicar, claimed to know an elderly lady, Miss Hargreaves, who he has invented on the spot. Egged on by Henry, he endows her with many eccentricities, including a parrot and a hip-bath which she carries everywhere with her. Imagine his surprise, and indeed horror, when, back home, he gets at message to say Miss H is arriving at his local station. Thinking, and hoping, that this is some kind of joke, he turns up and there she is, just as he described her, complete with parrot and bath. There is, certainly, much comedy of a slightly disturbing kind in their early encounters and conversations -- every time Norman invents some new facet of their supposed earlier acquaintance Miss H immediately 'remembers' it, but her memory appears to be extremely vague on subjects Norman has not mentioned himself. Norman is (understandably) appalled by this turn of events, and tries his best to escape Miss H, who is deeply hurt by his rejection of her. His friends and family are shocked by his apparent rudeness to this sweet old lady, who, they believe, he must have had some kind of sinister designs on. Things go from bad to worse, and Norman's state of mind becomes increasingly desperate and unstable. In the end he finds a solution of sorts, but I am not going to say more about this.
This book is really challenging in some ways. Mainly, I think, because it provides no easy answers to what has actually taken place. A stray reference at one point to JW Dunne's 1927 book An Experiment with Time provides a clue, I think. This book, which I remember my parents reading with great excitement, is described by Amazon as a work which "explores the relationship between dreams, time, and reality. It shows how a scientific experiment probes the nature of time and the barrier dividing past and future, and offers a scientific argument for human immortality". I've never read it myself, but think I might now have a go. But of course you don't have to get into all this in order to enjoy Miss H, which is really a remarkable and mind-bending read. A film was apparently made starring Margaret Rutherford, and I couldn't help picturing that wonderful actress as I read of the escapades of this extraordinary fictional character.
By the way, it appears as costing £30 on Amazon, but I got mine from abebooks for a lot less!
