Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Penguin Books (1986), Paperback, 184 pages
Description
It is a summer's day in 1946. The English village of Wealding is no longer troubled by distant sirens, yet the rustling coils of barbed wire are a reminder that something, some quality of life, has evaporated. Together again after years of separation, Laura and Stephen Marshall and their daughter Victoria are forced to manage without 'those anonymous caps and aprons who lived out of sight and pulled the strings'. Their rambling garden refuses to be tamed, the house seems perceptibly to crumble. But alone on a hillside, as evening falls, Laura comes to see what it would have meant if the war had been lost, and looks to the future with a new hope and optimism. First published in 1947, this subtle, finely wrought novel presents a memorable portrait of the aftermath of war, its effect upon a marriage, charting, too, a gradual but significant change in the nature of English middle-class life.… (more)
Media reviews
Wings - The Literary Guild Review
This is a completely enchanting account of the day's events in the life of Laura Marshall who lives on the South Downs in post-war England. Through flashbacks and reflection, it tells of her relations with her husband Stephen and their young daughter Victoria. As Laura tackles the household chores,
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the trip to the village, the marketing, the garden, she is filled with the wonderful calm and tranquility of peace in contrast to the hell of the war years - despite the dreary shortages and frustrations. Outstandingly well-written, this has all the delicate flavor, haunting atmosphere, and warmth of Rumer Godden's The River and is also reminiscent of Mrs. Miniver. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member lauralkeet
But in the early morning light, seen from the top of Barrow Down, the huddle of grey and pink and cream houses looked merely charming. Up here, man had long ago been obliterated by the green armies of fern, the invading foxgloves, the cony and the magpie. Bumps under the honeycombed turf marked the
Morning dawns in the village of Wealding, and so begins One Fine Day. It's 1946, the war is finally over, and residents of Wealding and the town of Bridbury are gradually returning to some kind of "normal" life. And yet things changed dramatically during the war. There was, of course, the tragic loss of life, the young men who never returned. But there were also fundamental changes in England's social fabric, which this short novel portrays in exquisite and sometimes painful detail. Laura & Stephen Marshall are an upper middle class couple, and before the war they benefited from daily household help in the form of a cook, a maid, and a nurse to care for their daughter Victoria. Dinner magically appeared on the table every night, the house was always clean and ready for guests, and Victoria was presented to her parents before bedtime, freshly scrubbed and wearing clean pajamas. The Marshalls were shocked into a completely different lifestyle during the war, when their household help found better work at better wages ... and never returned to a life of service.
One Fine Day follows Laura Marshall through a typical day of errands and household tasks, after Stephen leaves for work and Victoria gets off to school. Laura ventures into the town to buy food. She queues at the bakery and the fishmonger, dealing with competitive customers, grumpy shopkeepers, and a shortage of their better merchandise. But this book is not about what Laura does, it's about what she thinks, and what that tells us about her changing world. Occasionally she reminisces about her youth, and the man she almost married, and we gain insight into the society in which she was raised. Through a conversation between Laura and her mother we learn that Laura's parents, who live further away from London, were able to keep their servants. Their home still reflects the golden age of British Empire. "It was like going back to another world, seen through the nostalgic lens of world catastrophe." But then Laura's errands take her to the home of some local gentry, who are no longer able to keep up their estate. They have sold it to the "National Trussed," and are in progress of moving into a flat located near the manor house. She surveys the packing and dismantlement with dismay, noting the marked contrast with poorer families who have bettered their circumstances and "bred and bred like rabbits in their dreadful cottage."
A sense of loss pervades this book. The loss of material goods and comforts serves as a symbol for the loss of Empire that was just beginning to unfold. You can see those "English ladies and gentlemen who would forever inherit the earth," who took pride in turning the world map pink, begin to falter. And yet there is also an air of hope, of accepting one's new circumstances and seeing the possibility of happiness ahead. Much of this is conveyed through Laura's sensory perceptions, as she picks fruit in her garden or rides down a lane on her bicycle. As the day draws to a close, Mollie Panter-Downes shifts the point of view to Victoria, and then Stephen, and somehow manages leaves the reader with the feeling that while their lives are irrevocably changed, everything will work out for them in the long run.
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site of old shelters for man and beast where cattle had lowed and the smoke of little fires had written "Morning" and "Hunger" in the sky. Wealding children sometimes found old flints buried under the rabbit droppings; picnic parties munched their hard-boiled eggs among ghosts. In spring, dog-violets spilled small blue lakes in the bleached grass, followed later by the pink and white restharrow, clean as sprigged chintz, and the great golden candlesticks of mulleins. Up here, on the empty hilltop, something said I am England. I will remain. (p. 9)Morning dawns in the village of Wealding, and so begins One Fine Day. It's 1946, the war is finally over, and residents of Wealding and the town of Bridbury are gradually returning to some kind of "normal" life. And yet things changed dramatically during the war. There was, of course, the tragic loss of life, the young men who never returned. But there were also fundamental changes in England's social fabric, which this short novel portrays in exquisite and sometimes painful detail. Laura & Stephen Marshall are an upper middle class couple, and before the war they benefited from daily household help in the form of a cook, a maid, and a nurse to care for their daughter Victoria. Dinner magically appeared on the table every night, the house was always clean and ready for guests, and Victoria was presented to her parents before bedtime, freshly scrubbed and wearing clean pajamas. The Marshalls were shocked into a completely different lifestyle during the war, when their household help found better work at better wages ... and never returned to a life of service.
One Fine Day follows Laura Marshall through a typical day of errands and household tasks, after Stephen leaves for work and Victoria gets off to school. Laura ventures into the town to buy food. She queues at the bakery and the fishmonger, dealing with competitive customers, grumpy shopkeepers, and a shortage of their better merchandise. But this book is not about what Laura does, it's about what she thinks, and what that tells us about her changing world. Occasionally she reminisces about her youth, and the man she almost married, and we gain insight into the society in which she was raised. Through a conversation between Laura and her mother we learn that Laura's parents, who live further away from London, were able to keep their servants. Their home still reflects the golden age of British Empire. "It was like going back to another world, seen through the nostalgic lens of world catastrophe." But then Laura's errands take her to the home of some local gentry, who are no longer able to keep up their estate. They have sold it to the "National Trussed," and are in progress of moving into a flat located near the manor house. She surveys the packing and dismantlement with dismay, noting the marked contrast with poorer families who have bettered their circumstances and "bred and bred like rabbits in their dreadful cottage."
A sense of loss pervades this book. The loss of material goods and comforts serves as a symbol for the loss of Empire that was just beginning to unfold. You can see those "English ladies and gentlemen who would forever inherit the earth," who took pride in turning the world map pink, begin to falter. And yet there is also an air of hope, of accepting one's new circumstances and seeing the possibility of happiness ahead. Much of this is conveyed through Laura's sensory perceptions, as she picks fruit in her garden or rides down a lane on her bicycle. As the day draws to a close, Mollie Panter-Downes shifts the point of view to Victoria, and then Stephen, and somehow manages leaves the reader with the feeling that while their lives are irrevocably changed, everything will work out for them in the long run.
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LibraryThing member brenzi
Molly Panter-Downes worked for years as a London correspondent for the New Yorker after writing one novel when she was a very young woman. It was very well received but her love was non-fiction writing for the most part until, just after the war she decided to write a book that told the story of
This is a brilliant book that had me laughing out loud at what are dire circumstances to this particular class of Englishman. Mrs. Prout is one last vestige of women who find themselves useful to these unfortunate people:
"It was Wednesday, one of the mornings on which Mrs. Prout came to circulate the dust a little, to chivvy grey fluff airily round the floors with a grey mop , to get down creakingly on her vast knees and scrub the kitchen. Mrs. Prout obliged several ladies in Wealding, conscious of her own value, enjoying glimpses of this household and that, sly, sardonic, given to nose tapping and enormous winks, kind, a one for whist tables and a quiet glass at the local, scornful of the floundering efforts of the gentry to remain gentry still when there wasn't nobody even to answer their doorbells, poor souls." (Page 24)
Oh my, I don't think I'll ever forget Mrs. Prout who also said, "all the trouble in this world, came from everybody knowing how to read." She is a real character. But oh so wise. In the end, Laura and Stephen have to figure out how to live in this new world to make the most of it and enjoy the life they have. And I have to wait for the delivery of my next book by Mollie Panter-Downes, Good Evening Mrs. Craven: The Wartime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes. And I can't wait.
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how the war had changed England and it's residents for good. She chose to tell the story through Laura Marshall, an unassuming housewife who is struggling to make do without the services of the domestic servants who disappeared during and after the war. As she tries to maintain a good relationship with her husband, Stephen, just returned from the war, the narrative describes the events of one, very hot early summer day.This is a brilliant book that had me laughing out loud at what are dire circumstances to this particular class of Englishman. Mrs. Prout is one last vestige of women who find themselves useful to these unfortunate people:
"It was Wednesday, one of the mornings on which Mrs. Prout came to circulate the dust a little, to chivvy grey fluff airily round the floors with a grey mop , to get down creakingly on her vast knees and scrub the kitchen. Mrs. Prout obliged several ladies in Wealding, conscious of her own value, enjoying glimpses of this household and that, sly, sardonic, given to nose tapping and enormous winks, kind, a one for whist tables and a quiet glass at the local, scornful of the floundering efforts of the gentry to remain gentry still when there wasn't nobody even to answer their doorbells, poor souls." (Page 24)
Oh my, I don't think I'll ever forget Mrs. Prout who also said, "all the trouble in this world, came from everybody knowing how to read." She is a real character. But oh so wise. In the end, Laura and Stephen have to figure out how to live in this new world to make the most of it and enjoy the life they have. And I have to wait for the delivery of my next book by Mollie Panter-Downes, Good Evening Mrs. Craven: The Wartime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes. And I can't wait.
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LibraryThing member Liz1564
One Fine Day is just that; a single day in the life of Laura Marshall. It is a hot Wednesday during the summer of 1946 when Laura and her countrymen are adjusting to peace. During this lovely day she see her husband off to his job in London and her daughter to the village school. She chats with her
But every single small, insignifigent event triggers memories and longings. As Laura goes through her day she muses about life before the war when she had a cook, a housemaid, a full-time gardener, and a woman who did the cleaning. The cook died after being evacuated; the housemaid got a better job in a factory; the gardener was killed. Only her cleaning lady remained to help her try to keep the huge property in some semblance of order.
One Fine Day is sympathetic to the Lauras' of postwar England. Laura had to learn to cook on a god-awful stove where there was never any way to gauge the temperature of the oven. She shopped every day because there were no modern refrigerators. There was an endless pile of mending and cleaning. Carpets were swept, not vacuumed; flagstone floors were hard on the knees. Laura did the work of five people while she tried, without success, to keep the the prewar standards of dinner in the dining room and coffee in the sitting room.
The book is a portrait of how life had changed because of the war. Laura is gray-haired and tired. When the village Adonis looks at her, she images he sees, not the willowy beauty who had her choice of suitors, but a comfortable old sofa! Still, Laura is not one to feel sorry for herself. There is too much beauty in the over-run garden. She and her husband love each other and she has a wonderful, little girl. If there are hard times ahead, she and her family will adapt and prevail.
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cleaning woman, takes a call from her mother, and picks gooseberries. She shops for fish and has coffee in a village tea room. She speaks to the vicar, talks to young man about doing some gardening and has lunch with the family who is moving out of the manor house. In the afternoon, she bicycles up to a gypsy handyman's house to retrieve her wandering dog, and at his urging, continues to the top of Barrow Hill to enjoy the view. That is Laura's day. Nothing extraordinary happens.But every single small, insignifigent event triggers memories and longings. As Laura goes through her day she muses about life before the war when she had a cook, a housemaid, a full-time gardener, and a woman who did the cleaning. The cook died after being evacuated; the housemaid got a better job in a factory; the gardener was killed. Only her cleaning lady remained to help her try to keep the huge property in some semblance of order.
One Fine Day is sympathetic to the Lauras' of postwar England. Laura had to learn to cook on a god-awful stove where there was never any way to gauge the temperature of the oven. She shopped every day because there were no modern refrigerators. There was an endless pile of mending and cleaning. Carpets were swept, not vacuumed; flagstone floors were hard on the knees. Laura did the work of five people while she tried, without success, to keep the the prewar standards of dinner in the dining room and coffee in the sitting room.
The book is a portrait of how life had changed because of the war. Laura is gray-haired and tired. When the village Adonis looks at her, she images he sees, not the willowy beauty who had her choice of suitors, but a comfortable old sofa! Still, Laura is not one to feel sorry for herself. There is too much beauty in the over-run garden. She and her husband love each other and she has a wonderful, little girl. If there are hard times ahead, she and her family will adapt and prevail.
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LibraryThing member nmhale
A Virago edition that does not disappoint, this simple story records the changed life of an English couple after the war. I was not expecting much from the story, since the synopsis didn't draw me and I only chose it because it was a short read - I'm trying to read all the Viragos I bought recently
This sounds like it would make for a depressing plot, but it's really not. Laura is a plucky young woman, with a poetic spirit and a heart that is far more concerned with her family than her house. She feels chained to her duties as a house wife, trapped by her house which takes on a grumbling personality of its own, but she would much rather take Victoria on an impromptu vacation to the shore than think about these things. She doesn't know how to break out of the duties that have been ingrained in her as the only way of life, but her spirit constantly chafes under these rules and takes refuge in the sight of a bird or a walk through the grass. Her voice, which is the most dominant throughout the novel, is full of tenderness and weariness and bemusement at the situation embracing them now. Because she can accept these changes with a sense of humor, we can, too.
The tone of the novel reflects that of the day described, in most instances calm and comfortable, with little moments of sunlight speckling throughout. Nonetheless, the story never lags, but flows on smoothly, like a placid river. We filter everything through Laura's mind, and in a few instances, through Victoria and Stephen, so that though the events described are common place, I was never bored. I felt like I was living in this small village, turned upside down and made so different by a war that still left visible traces in the land, and even deeper scars in the people themselves. Yet the resolution of the people to carry on, to make do and adjust, was stronger than any despair, and the possibility of the future rang clear. This isn't a work that will shape the literary world, but it is a well-written period piece that shows how the world war affected life for everyone in England, how it dramatically changed the way the middle class world worked; portrayed in a manner that isn't depressing but easy to approach and to produce empathy.
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and a quick read seemed nice. The novel far exceeded my expectations, admittedly set low, by being an engrossing read about a small family adjusting to their new life. The point of view switches between mom, dad, and daughter, but mainly rests on Laura, the wife and mother. She is struggling to maintain her house and her garden and her old way of life, once run by servants and cooks; and, just like her house is slowly slipping into decay, so are the old habits that she is trying to retain. Her husband is at work in the city and spends his free hours trying to tame the garden. Their daughter, Victoria, is the only one rather happy in her new sloppy life. She likes the chaotic garden and just wishes she had better food. The story follows them along the path of just one day (thus the title) as they cook, clean, go to school and go to work, and as Laura takes an unplanned detour from her daily mundane routine and hikes about the countryside around her home.This sounds like it would make for a depressing plot, but it's really not. Laura is a plucky young woman, with a poetic spirit and a heart that is far more concerned with her family than her house. She feels chained to her duties as a house wife, trapped by her house which takes on a grumbling personality of its own, but she would much rather take Victoria on an impromptu vacation to the shore than think about these things. She doesn't know how to break out of the duties that have been ingrained in her as the only way of life, but her spirit constantly chafes under these rules and takes refuge in the sight of a bird or a walk through the grass. Her voice, which is the most dominant throughout the novel, is full of tenderness and weariness and bemusement at the situation embracing them now. Because she can accept these changes with a sense of humor, we can, too.
The tone of the novel reflects that of the day described, in most instances calm and comfortable, with little moments of sunlight speckling throughout. Nonetheless, the story never lags, but flows on smoothly, like a placid river. We filter everything through Laura's mind, and in a few instances, through Victoria and Stephen, so that though the events described are common place, I was never bored. I felt like I was living in this small village, turned upside down and made so different by a war that still left visible traces in the land, and even deeper scars in the people themselves. Yet the resolution of the people to carry on, to make do and adjust, was stronger than any despair, and the possibility of the future rang clear. This isn't a work that will shape the literary world, but it is a well-written period piece that shows how the world war affected life for everyone in England, how it dramatically changed the way the middle class world worked; portrayed in a manner that isn't depressing but easy to approach and to produce empathy.
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LibraryThing member Kasthu
Set in the summer of 1946, One Fine Day is a novel about the inhabitants of one town as they try to regain some semblance of normal lives after WWII. Laura Marshall is the focal point of the story, but other characters meander in and out throughout the book. Even the dogs have personality.
Things
There’s not much “action,” as such; in fact this novel is written more as a group of character sketches. Mollie Panter-Downes writes beautifully; you can feel the breeze of a hot summer day up on Barrow Down. It’s a slow-moving, meandering book (much like the hot summer weather described in the book), and it takes a while to get into it. But once you do, this book is well worth it.
Things
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are clearly changing; Laura, for example, tries to make do without household help, and the Cranmers leave the Manor after their family had been there for hundreds of years. Yet people are still forced to use ration books. The tone of the novel is bittersweet, a kind of wistful yearning for a way of life that can’t go on post-war: “it was too idiotic, but there she was all the time, down in her house in Wealding, struggling to keep up a life which had really ended.” Things are different for everyone, yet Laura and Stephen Marshall try to go on as they were before.There’s not much “action,” as such; in fact this novel is written more as a group of character sketches. Mollie Panter-Downes writes beautifully; you can feel the breeze of a hot summer day up on Barrow Down. It’s a slow-moving, meandering book (much like the hot summer weather described in the book), and it takes a while to get into it. But once you do, this book is well worth it.
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LibraryThing member Picola43
"One Fine Day" is beautifully constructed and written and I regard it as a perfect marvel.
LibraryThing member proustitute
Imagine Mrs. Dalloway taking place during the first summer of peace after the Second World War, and you have something very similar to Panter-Downes's One Fine Day. The prose here is eerily similar to Woolf's, in fact, as well as Bowen's and even Elizabeth Taylor's, but the overarching debt here is
Much more so than there, though, does Panter-Downes get under the skin of the class system, its destabilization after WWII, and the sense of delusion under which most privileged Brits lived during the war. While Laura holds the center, and causes Panter-Downes to focus a lot on women's changing roles in and out of the domestic sphere, comments about class and aging, class and bias, class and hypocrisy—all combined with an attention to gender—there are some very astute portraits in here, too, of a crisis in masculinity that the war prompted more so than WWI did, a sense of displacement, and, even still, a nationalistic pride and all but unfounded optimism that is never droll, trite, or sentimental.
It's a damn shame this book is out of print; even more so, that Panter-Downes has written several other novels, about which I can find hardly any information at all, anywhere. If anyone finds information out, please do comment below. This is a fantastic writer whose insight into humanity just in the aftermath of chaos is so worthwhile and prescient to read given the current political climate.
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very obviously to Woolf's novel. Much more so than there, though, does Panter-Downes get under the skin of the class system, its destabilization after WWII, and the sense of delusion under which most privileged Brits lived during the war. While Laura holds the center, and causes Panter-Downes to focus a lot on women's changing roles in and out of the domestic sphere, comments about class and aging, class and bias, class and hypocrisy—all combined with an attention to gender—there are some very astute portraits in here, too, of a crisis in masculinity that the war prompted more so than WWI did, a sense of displacement, and, even still, a nationalistic pride and all but unfounded optimism that is never droll, trite, or sentimental.
It's a damn shame this book is out of print; even more so, that Panter-Downes has written several other novels, about which I can find hardly any information at all, anywhere. If anyone finds information out, please do comment below. This is a fantastic writer whose insight into humanity just in the aftermath of chaos is so worthwhile and prescient to read given the current political climate.
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LibraryThing member mahallett
an exploration of 1 day in the lives of a 3 person family in 1946, in a london suburb.
bought in stratford.
bought in stratford.
LibraryThing member SylviaC
This novel is like a snapshot of a single day in the life of a British family in the aftermath of World War II. It follows Laura, Stephen, and their daughter Victoria through a hot, sunny July day in July 1946. Laura does the household chores that she had to learn to do by herself but never really
The theme of change and adaptation is rooted in the history and permanence of the English countryside. The characters are faced with the social upheaval brought about by the war. The middle and upper classes were left to cope with their crumbling homes and lifestyles after the servants left during the war. The people who would have done the work have discovered new opportunities and freedoms beyond the confines of their former roles. We get a glimpse of the difficulties encountered by soldiers returning to families and homes that have evolved without them, and the families who likewise had to adjust to fit the men and their expectations back into their lives.
The writing is beautiful, with wonderful descriptions of the countryside and people of the village. Laura is a lighthearted and sympathetic character. While there is a sense of melancholy for what has been lost for some, there is also optimism for the future. Despite the lack of action, the book is enthralling, with a strong sense of time and space. For the modern reader, it casts a spotlight on a moment in the past. I wonder what it was like for the original readers back when the book was serialized and published in 1946-47.
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mastered during the war. Stephen commutes to his office in London, and frets over the overgrown garden that he is not able to take care of adequately. Victoria is growing up as children do, heading for a future in this new post-war world. That's about it. They move through a typical day with no particular action or great drama.The theme of change and adaptation is rooted in the history and permanence of the English countryside. The characters are faced with the social upheaval brought about by the war. The middle and upper classes were left to cope with their crumbling homes and lifestyles after the servants left during the war. The people who would have done the work have discovered new opportunities and freedoms beyond the confines of their former roles. We get a glimpse of the difficulties encountered by soldiers returning to families and homes that have evolved without them, and the families who likewise had to adjust to fit the men and their expectations back into their lives.
The writing is beautiful, with wonderful descriptions of the countryside and people of the village. Laura is a lighthearted and sympathetic character. While there is a sense of melancholy for what has been lost for some, there is also optimism for the future. Despite the lack of action, the book is enthralling, with a strong sense of time and space. For the modern reader, it casts a spotlight on a moment in the past. I wonder what it was like for the original readers back when the book was serialized and published in 1946-47.
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LibraryThing member lydiasbooks
This was the first book by this author that I really had difficulty getting through. Despite being beautiful and intriguing on a psychological and sociological level, it felt rather dull to me most of the time. It isn't really my kind of book at all, I'm afraid. I'm not sorry I read it, but would
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not wish to read it again or recommend it to anyone with a brief attention span. Show Less
Awards
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1947
Physical description
184 p.; 7.7 inches
ISBN
0140161198 / 9780140161199