Uncle Paul: Welcome to the Nightmare Summer Holiday

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If you like Agatha Christie and/or Patricia Highsmith, you will enjoy this book very much. If you are looking for an Enid Blyton-esque read, maybe not so much! For myself the entertainment rested on Fremlin's children - a classic 50s child, Cedric, who manages on most occasions to outsmart the adults, and Isabel's two small boys, doing precisely child-like things, with a vivid sense of children's self-focus.

Having read, “The Hours Before Dawn,” Celia Fremlin’s debut, I was keen to read more by her. This, her second novel, was published in 1959 and how glad I am that I have discovered her. Definitely, Celia Fremlin is my discovery of the year and I am so pleased that her work has been reissued by Faber Finds.

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I have been on a mission to read all of Fremlin's books. I liked this one, but it definitely wasn't her best. It was a bit slow and I didn't identify with any of the main characters in the way that I did in her other books. I found them all rather silly. Or maybe that's the wrong word. Their motivations and views on the world seemed immature and more naive than I expect from women that of that age and experience, even in that era. Whereas I find her main character's in other books more believable. Excellent book. Highly recommended for anyone who loves a Christie or a psychological slow burn thriller. Beautifully played out to a startling and valid ending... Fremlin is here to stay as a major mistress of insight and suspense." — The New York Times

Once reunited with the nervous, jumpy, Isabel, Meg finds it is a worse situation than she imagined. Fifteen years ago, Mildred discovered that her husband, Meg and Isabel’s, ‘Uncle Paul,’ was not who he seemed and he went to prison. Now, Mildred is convinced that he is out and about to extract his revenge…. This has unexpectedly shot to one of my top ranking for the wonderful Celia Fremlin, an author seemingly being rediscovered thanks to Faber. The setting is slightly atypical as Fremlin usually specialises in suburban unease - here the families are just as dysfunctional but there is the added fun and hilarity of taking them out of their usual habitat and dumping them down at the seaside complete with 1950s inconveniences (the caravan door that won't open unless you hurl your body at it), unpredictable British weather (rain one minute, hot sunshine the next), sand in the sandwiches... and the hovering spectre of a potential murderer out from a prison sentence and seeking revenge. But, gradually, the ominous and sinister start to encroach further eek, the cobra in Meg's bedroom! though we're kept hovering between knowing whether there is material danger stalking the sisters or whether it's just paranoia. It all comes to a glorious climax which is, arguably, more 'psychological' than some of Fremlin's later books.

In this Waterstones Thriller of the Month, as recommended on BBC Radio 4's Open Book, one family's skeletons emerge on a 1950s seaside summer holiday in this classic mystery from 'Britain's Patricia Highsmith' and the 'grandmother of psycho-domestic noir' ( Sunday Times ) Fremlin puts a keen edge on the reader's curiosity and keeps it there... the writing is so good throughout." — The Times (London) Literary Supplement Yes, that cover art totally caught my eye :O) That and the fact that Waterstone’s Books of the Month can sometimes have some lovely gems. That’s how I discovered The Enchanted April.

Now, on his release from prison, is he returning for revenge, seeking who betrayed him? Or are all three women letting their nerves get the better of them? Though who really is Meg's new lover? And whose are those footsteps ...? Well I loved this. I'd read a review saying it was old fashioned and dated but I didn't find it so at all, certainly no more so than any mid century Agatha Christie. There's maybe one or two references to women being hysterical or not being able to "hang onto" a man (rather than the man simply being a womanizer) but they are few and far between. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book. The cover looks like the front of an Enid Blyton Famous Five story. The blurb reads like Agatha Christie. The author is billed as ‘Britain’s Patricia Highsmith.’ Which os these was going to be closest to the reality of the book? Turns out, it was a thing all of its own. It is rare for any catastrophe to seem like a catastrophe right at the very beginning. Nearly always, in the early stages, it seems more like a nuisance; just one more of those tiresome interruptions which come so provokingly just when life is going smoothly and pleasantly.Such a wonderful opening paragraph, full of foreboding. Unfortunately, for me, this failed to fulfill what looked so promising. Still, as with many authors I like, even a so-so Fremlin is better than a lot of books. I didn't figure out who the culprit was, which was nice, but I also wasn't driven to keep reading as I was withe The Hours Before Dawn and The Jealous One, which is why it took me 2 months to read. Still, nice evocation of a seaside holiday, one much darker than R. C. Sherriff's lovely book, The Fortnight in September!

There are some fantastically well-drawn observations, particularly around the child characters. There is Cedric the know-it-all, Peter who insists on everyone who goes up and down the caravan steps paying tribute to 'Sharkey' and Johnny, cheerily oblivious to the tension around him. Even the desperately unravelling Isabel is beautifully caught. As before, some of the dialogue and characters still feel eerily relevant. Still, there are other moments which prove that the past truly is another country where things are done differently. Meg learns to be more accepting of the perspective of others; to not dismiss the silliness of women, who don't have good vocabs and rational faculties. And, then, she falls prey to the most demeaning of horrors. One night at the cottage, she screams herself hoarse, calling for her sister's help, who is an arm's length away in the other bedroom. But, Meg's door has been bolted from the outside - and there is no response from Mildred. Fremlin is always wonderful for her acute observations and for the social history embedded in her books and, for the first half, the creepy element felt like an add on to me that rather distracted from all the delights of awkward children (Cedric, the boy who knows everything; Peter and 'sharkie' who lives under the caravan steps), squabbling with fellow guests at a nearby hotel over when to light a fire, and the inevitable colonel who wants to run everything.