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A Harp in Lowndes Square
In the schoolroom in Lowndes Square, a child, in her ugly, unsuitable frock of plum-coloured satin, cut down when discarded from one of her mother’s, bent over the cutting out of a doll and its cardboard wardrobe, and shivered as she worked. Hilarious, shocking, and heartbreaking in turn, A Harp in Lowndes Square is like no other Rachel Ferguson novel. Perhaps her most personal work – and the closest she ever came to a ghost story – it tells of Vere and James, twins gifted with ‘the sight,’ which allows them to see and even experience scenes from the past (including one, at Hampton Court, involving royalty). The twins are already aware of their mother’s troubled relationship with her own mother, the formidable Lady Vallant, but the discovery of an Aunt Myra, who died young and of whom their mother has never spoken, leads them to uncover the family’s tragic past. Against the backdrop of World War I and Vere’s unexpected relationship with an aging actor (and his wife), and rife with Ferguson’s inimitable wit, the novel reaches a powerful and touching denouement when the twins relive the horrifying events of many years before … A Harp in Lowndes Square was originally published in 1936. This new edition features an introduction by social historian Elizabeth Crawford. ‘It is only (now) that I realise how much … my work owes to the delicacy and variety of Rachel Ferguson’s exploration of the real and the dreamed of, or the made up, or desired.’ A.S. Byatt ‘A wonderful concoction … the true stuff of storytelling.’ Gillian Tindall
302 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1936
31 people are currently reading
148 people want to read
About the author
Rachel Ferguson
19 books19 followersRachel Ferguson was educated privately, before being sent to finishing school in Italy. She flaunted her traditional upbringing to become a vigorous campaigner for women's rights and member of the WSPU.
In 1911 Rachel Ferguson became a student at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She enjoyed a brief though varied career on the stage, cut short by the First World War. After service in the Women's Volunteer Reserve she began writing in earnest.
Working as a journalist at the same time as writing fiction, Rachel Ferguson started out as 'Columbine', drama critic on the Sunday Chronicle. False Goddesses, her first novel, was published in 1923. A second novel The Bröntes Went to Woolworths did not appear until 1931, but its wide acclaim confirmed Rachel Ferguson's position in the public eye. Over the next two decades she wrote extensively and published nine more novels.
Rachel Ferguson lived in Kensington until her death in 1957.
In 1911 Rachel Ferguson became a student at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She enjoyed a brief though varied career on the stage, cut short by the First World War. After service in the Women's Volunteer Reserve she began writing in earnest.
Working as a journalist at the same time as writing fiction, Rachel Ferguson started out as 'Columbine', drama critic on the Sunday Chronicle. False Goddesses, her first novel, was published in 1923. A second novel The Bröntes Went to Woolworths did not appear until 1931, but its wide acclaim confirmed Rachel Ferguson's position in the public eye. Over the next two decades she wrote extensively and published nine more novels.
Rachel Ferguson lived in Kensington until her death in 1957.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 12, 2021
What an odd book this is - subtly so, but certainly odd.
July 26, 2022
A bit challenging, and if you don’t like Rachel Ferguson’s other novels I don’t think this would be your cup of tea, but for those who find her work fascinating, I highly recommend this!
TBH I did enjoy “The Bronte’s Went to Woolworth’s” a bit more, but this was so unusual and touching and oddly relatable and the ending so beautiful that I had to give it 5 stars! I can’t wait to read more of her.
TBH I did enjoy “The Bronte’s Went to Woolworth’s” a bit more, but this was so unusual and touching and oddly relatable and the ending so beautiful that I had to give it 5 stars! I can’t wait to read more of her.
March 14, 2017
Well that was a lovely book, just really pleasant to read. Almost a ghost story and really full of character and observation.
It was nice to read a period piece (1920s ish) with decent female characters who aren't just trying to get themselves married off.
The Kindle edition that I read was annoyingly packed with spelling mistakes, wrong words, wrong characters and other editorial errors. This was occasionally very confusing as there was also a lot of archaic use of words and historical references which were hard to follow as sometimes t wasn't clear whether it was a legitimate use of a word or just an editing error.
I picked this up thanks to this excellent book list article in the TLS.
It was nice to read a period piece (1920s ish) with decent female characters who aren't just trying to get themselves married off.
The Kindle edition that I read was annoyingly packed with spelling mistakes, wrong words, wrong characters and other editorial errors. This was occasionally very confusing as there was also a lot of archaic use of words and historical references which were hard to follow as sometimes t wasn't clear whether it was a legitimate use of a word or just an editing error.
I picked this up thanks to this excellent book list article in the TLS.
December 23, 2017
The main action of this story takes place in England during World War I, but unlike most novels set in that era, the war doesn’t drive the plot, but seems an inconvenience. Instead we focus on Vere, a young woman taking her place in the world as a working woman. Her twin, James, is off fighting in the war. They both psychic abilities, which come in handy when trying to unravel the family’s troubled past that no one wants to talk about. The family matriarch, Vere’s grandmother, makes Miss Haversham seem like a sweetie pie. I enjoyed this quirky, witty, unusual book, particularly the subplot involving an aging stage actor who is making a comeback.
June 8, 2024
Odd little story which keeps the reader guessing - not so much as to its outcomes, which are fairly predictable, but more as to its intentions - is it a Gothic story, a domestic drama, a romance or a piece of high theatre?
Our narrator is Vere Buchan, whose cosy suburban life with her parents, older sister Lalage and twin brother James is disrupted when her father dies and they move into London. This brings them into contact with grandmother Lady Vallant, an imposing and domineering old lady. Vere and James find her influence over their mother disturbing, even more so when they pick up hints of a past tragedy that continues to overshadow the family and the staff at the house in Lowndes Square.
This part of the story was quite intriguing, and I enjoyed seeing Vere’s attempts to untangle past and present. However, a second plot line emerges that deals with Vere’s complicated emotional relationships with an ageing actor, Cosmo Furnival, and his wife. I found this rather dull and rambling, it slowed the book down considerably and changed the focus away from the more interesting characters such as James, Lalage and the Buchans’ cousins.
I ended with mixed feelings. I appreciated the modernity of certain aspects - for example, the presence of a heroine who chooses to work and eschew conventional marriage and family, the exploration of ideas like simultaneous time and generational trauma - but at other times I felt uncomfortable with the dynamics between the characters and their responses to events. Maybe those aspects just haven’t aged too well.
Our narrator is Vere Buchan, whose cosy suburban life with her parents, older sister Lalage and twin brother James is disrupted when her father dies and they move into London. This brings them into contact with grandmother Lady Vallant, an imposing and domineering old lady. Vere and James find her influence over their mother disturbing, even more so when they pick up hints of a past tragedy that continues to overshadow the family and the staff at the house in Lowndes Square.
This part of the story was quite intriguing, and I enjoyed seeing Vere’s attempts to untangle past and present. However, a second plot line emerges that deals with Vere’s complicated emotional relationships with an ageing actor, Cosmo Furnival, and his wife. I found this rather dull and rambling, it slowed the book down considerably and changed the focus away from the more interesting characters such as James, Lalage and the Buchans’ cousins.
I ended with mixed feelings. I appreciated the modernity of certain aspects - for example, the presence of a heroine who chooses to work and eschew conventional marriage and family, the exploration of ideas like simultaneous time and generational trauma - but at other times I felt uncomfortable with the dynamics between the characters and their responses to events. Maybe those aspects just haven’t aged too well.
May 9, 2018
Another lovely period novel from Rachel Ferguson, filled with wonderful words and descriptions, enchanting characters and situations.
June 14, 2024
"A Harp in Lowndes Square" is my second novel by Rachel Ferguson and so far she is not my favorite author, this one was really dragging for me. I just could not really get interested and near the end skimmed a bit. I felt like I never would finish this story but thankfully I did. I still wanted to find out the end so is the reason I kept on. This is a supernatural story regarding a villainous Victorian mother.
Story in short- Vere and James wonder about their grandmother's treatment of her children.
➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 9
The twins are already aware of their mother’s troubled relationship with her own mother, the formidable Lady Vallant, but the discovery of an Aunt Myra, who died young and of whom their mother has never spoken, leads them to uncover the family’s tragic past. Against the backdrop of World War I and Vere’s unexpected relationship with an aging actor (and his wife), and rife with Ferguson’s inimitable wit, the novel reaches a powerful and touching denouement when
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 12
the twins relive the horrifying events of many years before ... A Harp in Lowndes Square was originally published in 1936.
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 1
Windows and doors in the upper regions of the five-storied house fitted ill: nobody ever attended to them. The nursemaid had ‘forgotten’ to bring another scuttle of coal
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 1
up all those flights of stairs; nobody except Sir Frederick and Lady Vallant rang bells. It was past bedtime, a landmark easy to forget, for the Vallant children were given no supper, but the nurse was flights below at hers, the nursemaid out for the evening.
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 2
Simultaneous time ... the past co-existing with the present and the future.
Highlight (Yellow) and Note | Page 2
‘All time is one.’ It was Anne who, years later, said that to her own children, James and Vere, but it was they who were to prove it.
*** Anne remembering her youth when she was treated poorly and ignored in her home in Lowndes Square. She is married now with her own children.
❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌
❌❌❌spoiler alert
What bothered me the most was Vere and her relationship with Cosmo the aged actor and his wife Enid, it was so strange and especially for the 1930's though the setting was before and during WW1. The ghost angle is out there especially with Vere sees Cosmo after his death. Lady Vallant is indeed evil!
Story in short- Vere and James wonder about their grandmother's treatment of her children.
➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 9
The twins are already aware of their mother’s troubled relationship with her own mother, the formidable Lady Vallant, but the discovery of an Aunt Myra, who died young and of whom their mother has never spoken, leads them to uncover the family’s tragic past. Against the backdrop of World War I and Vere’s unexpected relationship with an aging actor (and his wife), and rife with Ferguson’s inimitable wit, the novel reaches a powerful and touching denouement when
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 12
the twins relive the horrifying events of many years before ... A Harp in Lowndes Square was originally published in 1936.
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 1
Windows and doors in the upper regions of the five-storied house fitted ill: nobody ever attended to them. The nursemaid had ‘forgotten’ to bring another scuttle of coal
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 1
up all those flights of stairs; nobody except Sir Frederick and Lady Vallant rang bells. It was past bedtime, a landmark easy to forget, for the Vallant children were given no supper, but the nurse was flights below at hers, the nursemaid out for the evening.
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 2
Simultaneous time ... the past co-existing with the present and the future.
Highlight (Yellow) and Note | Page 2
‘All time is one.’ It was Anne who, years later, said that to her own children, James and Vere, but it was they who were to prove it.
*** Anne remembering her youth when she was treated poorly and ignored in her home in Lowndes Square. She is married now with her own children.
❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌
❌❌❌spoiler alert
What bothered me the most was Vere and her relationship with Cosmo the aged actor and his wife Enid, it was so strange and especially for the 1930's though the setting was before and during WW1. The ghost angle is out there especially with Vere sees Cosmo after his death. Lady Vallant is indeed evil!
March 9, 2023
This novel is a fascinating mixture of different things: a bit Victorian ghost story, a bit Edwardian down-at-heels family drama (it centers on a menacing Bad Grandma who controls the big house and the family money while everyone else scrounges), a bit Bohemian social comedy, and all through, very sparkling and creative prose. The narrator and her twin brother are sort of Bright Young Things trying to navigate the morasses of bad family history while living their lives as modern people. Also they're a bit psychic. I'm not 100% sure these threads were satisfyingly pulled together, but the reading experience did not ever descend into any of the clichés of the aforementioned plot conventions. I will probably go find more of Ferguson's books.
June 3, 2025
Rachel Ferguson writes in such a complex and subtle way, reminiscent of Henry James or E.M. Forster.
This interwar novel has much in common with “The Turn of the Screw” in that it is in many ways a ghost story exploring generational implications.
Vere Buchan, the protagonist is an intelligent and sensitive person whose childhood and young adult life is haunted by the tragedies and family relations that occurred before her birth.
Interwoven with the experiences as she matures from childhood the underlying story affects both Vere and the people she loves.
Exquisite character development and atmosphere.
Not for everyone; this is not a simple accessible read.
This interwar novel has much in common with “The Turn of the Screw” in that it is in many ways a ghost story exploring generational implications.
Vere Buchan, the protagonist is an intelligent and sensitive person whose childhood and young adult life is haunted by the tragedies and family relations that occurred before her birth.
Interwoven with the experiences as she matures from childhood the underlying story affects both Vere and the people she loves.
Exquisite character development and atmosphere.
Not for everyone; this is not a simple accessible read.
July 25, 2019
See my review here:
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2019...
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2019...
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews