TOUCH AND GO

by Elizabeth Berridge

Book by Berridge, Elizabeth

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction

248 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Elizabeth Berridge grew up in the ‘safe London suburb’ of Wandsworth Common. A year in Switzerland and a ‘hateful’ period at the Bank of England, described in Be Clean, Be Tidy (1949), was followed by work in a photographic news agency. She married Reginald Moore in 1940, published her first short story in 1941 and, in 1943, after the birth of the first of her two children, moved to a remote house in Wales, where Moore edited Modern Reading and other wartime anthologies and she wrote the stories reprinted in Tell It to a Stranger – published as Selected Stories in 1947; they returned to London in 1950. Elizabeth Berridge published nine novels, Across the Common winning the Yorkshire Post Award for Best Novel of the Year in 1964. She reviewed fiction for the Daily Telegraph for twenty-five years. Her last novel, Touch and Go, was adapted as a play by BBC Radio 4.

Reviews

[Cat Freeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was expecting this one to be a standard "woman moves back to old country town, finds man, falls in love" kind of novel. I was quite confident I knew that's what I was getting. And while I generally am not a fan of knowing what's going to happen before it happens, I was okay with that. After my last read, I didn't much mind reading something cheerful.

But, I was wrong. Not to say that the book is a depressing book. Parts of it are sad, or bittersweet, but it is not, on the whole, a depressing story. It is also not a stereotypical romance. It is women's fiction, not built on the cliche that all women's fiction MUST be romance. I found that a refreshing change of pace, if surprising.

The writing was compelling enough that I found myself awake at 4 am, reading for 2 hours, without realizing the time had passed. I tend to have bouts of insomnia and read in the middle of the night, but rarely for 2 hours. I didn't feel I was as emotionally invested in the characters as I might have been, however I was clearly invested enough in the book to keep turning the pages for 2 hours at that unholy time of night.

I highly recommend this one to anyone who loves women's fiction, especially for someone tired of the cliche that women's fiction must be romance.

*Copy provided by NetGalley, Endeavor Press & The Odyssey Press, for an honest review. Thanks for making it available.

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[Kirsty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I waxed lyrical about the first of Elizabeth Berridge's novels which I read, Across the Common.  On the basis of reading the wonderful and absorbing novel, which I reviewed a few weeks ago, I broke my year-long book-buying ban in order to pick up three more paperback editions of other Berridge books.  Touch and Go is a far later work, first published in 1995, and marked her return to novel writing after more than a decade.

The protagonist of Touch and Go is a woman in her late thirties named Emma Rowlands, who has just gone through quite a nasty divorce.  She has returned to the quaint Welsh village in which she spent her childhood, taking with her 'no more than some favourite pieces of china, books, flowers, and her small pregnant cat.'  She has left behind her broken marriage, a flat in London, and a teenage daughter, who has fled to India to escape her parents' constant arguments.  She has come into the inheritance of the old doctor's surgery and house in the village, and is both nervous and excited to build a new future for herself.

Touch and Go begins in the 'middle of October, with dusk curtaining the hills'.  As soon as she arrives, Emma begins to notice changes within the village 'that marked her as a stranger and mad to come back.'  The house which she has returned for, Domen Gastell, is 'solid, red and four-square on top of the hill'.  In her initial darkness-tinted exploration of her new abode, Berridge gives a series of wonderfully vivid descriptions: 'She stalked over to see what kind of view there was from the long window, kneeling on a wide window-seat to look out into the damp, dark scenery of the garden beyond the bushes.'

Throughout, Berridge provides such a realistic portrayal of Emma, and her myriad feelings.  On her first full day, for instance, Emma 'felt a painful excitement; an almost uncontrollable pleasure which gave her a headache; a giant fear that all this would be snatched away.'  One quickly gets a feel for how much the house, and the fresh start, means to her: 'Emma was flushed with exploration, dizzy with ownership.'

Rather than her life in progressive London, Emma finds a community which holds onto its traditional values.  As her time in Wales goes on, Emma meets many figures from her past - a slightly disgruntled housekeeper who seems to come with the inheritance of the house, and a rather bossy childhood friend named Debby, for instance, who quickly makes her wonder about her place in the friendship: 'Should she allow Debby to take over?  For years she had allowed her husband to do just that and was only now piecing together her own previous identity.'

Berridge creates wonderful atmosphere in Touch and Go.  In one of my favourite passages from the book, she writes: 'The house was very silent and she was held in a strange immobility, as if she were in the middle of a web, and the threads of other people's lives dense around her.'

Where Berridge's real strength lies here is in the differences she outlines between the generations.  Emma's mother Adela, for instance, is chiefly concerned with appearances.  When we first meet her, Adela, who has not seen Emma for quite some time, has these initial thoughts: 'Had she put on weight and was the colour in her cheeks the beginning of weathering?  Could she warn her about broken veins?...  She hoped that Emma was not letting herself go; at her age she could surely marry again.'  This proves a marked contrast to the attitude of Emma's daughter, Charlotte: 'Evidently Emma's move, exhausting and traumatic to her, meant little to her daughter, caught up as she was with exhilarating new experiences: jewels and saris...  a whole dazzling continent to discover.'

Touch and Go is a very readable novel, but I must admit that I did not feel as absorbed by it as I did with Across the Common.  The secondary characters in this novel were not as vivid to me, and until close to the end, there is not a great deal of plot.  A lot of the narrative in Touch and Go, too, is taken up with conversations between Emma and various friends and neighbours, almost all of whom reminisce about her parents.  There are some very tender and memorable moments within it, though.  It reminded me somewhat of Dodie Smith's familial sagas, novels which I really enjoy.

Berridge has been getting somewhat more recognition over recent months, which is wonderful to see.  I only hope that publishers follow suit and reissue all of her novels in the very near future.  I can certainly see that Berridge will become one of my favourite authors, and feel as though I have a great deal of literary treats in store as I make my way through her oeuvre.

[Jan Kazimi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jk

I really enjoyed this book
So nice to read a book that has a nice storyline.
I will recommend this book to others

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Touch and Go’ was published in 1995, by Black Swan, and I suspect that if I had seen in back then, in a bookshop or in the library, I would have passed it by, seeing a cover that suggested it was probably just another ‘aga saga.’ I remember that Black Swan published a lot of those sort of books …..

But since 1995 I have seen Persephone Books reissue Elizabeth Berridge’s wartime short stories, I have seen Faber Finds reissue a number of her post-war novels, and so, of course, when I spotted a copy of that paperback book from 1995 I reached out for it.

I did find a hint of the ‘aga saga’ – and two agas in the first chapter – but I found much more, and I found qualities that elevated this book above many similar works.

Emma was at the centre of the story. She was nearly forty and she was nearly alone: she was newly divorced, her daughter was travelling the world in her gap year, and her mother was dealing with widowhood by filling her life with journeys and activities. And so when Emma was, quite unexpectedly, left a house in the Welsh border country – in the village where she had grown up – she decided to move there, to start a new chapter in her life.

That chapter came about as the result of a childhood illness. The local doctor had asked Emma what she would like as a treat, and she told him that she would love his shell house. He admired her taste, he told her that it would be hers one day, and he kept his word; years later he left her the shell house and the house in which it stood. That made me think a little of another book where a legacy leads to a new life – Elizabeth Goudge’s ‘The Scent of Water’ – but I was soon to find myself drawn into a very different story.

I watched Emma meeting old friends, and others she had known as a child; I watched her settle into a new way of life; and I watched her putting so much energy into that art that was her livelihood, and into restoring her somewhat dilapidated inheritance. There were moments when I thought that everything was falling into place rather easily, but the author’s wonderful understanding of the world she was writing about, of her characters and their relationships and interactions, and the beauty of her prose, made that seem unimportant. Sometimes in life things do work out nicely, and Emma did have concerns about how her daughter was coping, so far away from home, and about her mother.

One incident – a burglary at Emma’s London flat – changed the story, and took it to another level. Emma went back to London, and when she contacted her estranged husband to tell him that some of his possessions had been lost, the response made her realise that her marriage was truly over, and that she was glad. She couldn’t stay in the flat, and so she went to stay with her mother.

The story of Emma’s mother, Adela, was quietly heart-breaking. Adela’s marriage had been happy and strong, but since her husband’s death she was struggling with a future that she hadn’t planned for, that she didn’t want. She knew she had to make changes, but she wanted things to stay as they were; she was troubled but she knew that she had to keep going, that she had to so the right thing. I saw elements of my mother in Adela, and I was sorry that maybe she was so very real, so very alive, because Elizabeth Berridge became a widow a few years before this book was published.

Emma and Adela came to understand each other a little better; Adela gained strength from being needed as a mother, and she helped Emma to come to terms with her relationship with her absent daughter, Charlotte. There were some wonderful moments, some happy and some sad, and I was particularly taken with Adela’s perception of Emma’s situation.

Emma persuaded Adela to come to Wales with her for Christmas, but she didn’t quite realise how difficult that would be, that Adela’s life as a young mother in the same place that she lived now had not been quite as simple as she thought.

The later chapters of ‘Touch and Go’ work quite beautifully as a study of mothers and daughters, of love and loss. I was sorry that there were distractions from that story – a little too much country life, one or two loose or undeveloped plotlines – because they made a story that was both beautiful and profound feel just a little fuzzy.

‘Touch and Go’ was Elizabeth Berridge’s last book, and though it has weaknesses that detract only a little from a very fine novel. And a final novel this good leaves me eager to read her earlier novels, and her short stories.

[Goldenwattle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A reasonable read - I wouldn't have read to the end if it wasn't - but not outstanding. The writing was strangely distant and the characters confusing. They appeared without enough explanation as to whom they were. The best part of the book was its Welsh setting. I have a weakness for books set in pretty settings. It was a refreshing approach to the rescued mistreated dog. So often in stories the former owner has to be paid off so the rescuers can keep the dog. In this story he was threatened with being reported to the authorities for cruelty, made to pay the vet bills and told that he could expect no payment. Halleluiah - a realistic approach.
A bit of information for the author. The described tomcat sounded like a tortoiseshell cat. Tortoiseshell cats are almost 100% female. According to Wikipedia, only 1 in 3,000 tortoiseshell cats are male.

[Ellen · Rating 2 out of 5]

In this slow moving story, Emma leaves her home near Birmingham to move into a house she inherits in Wales. Newly divorced, she returns where she grew up, redoing the old doctor's house. I felt the characters were not appealing and the plot lacking. Skip this one.

[Judi Easley · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Review:
I didn't know what to expect from this one, even after reading the synopsis and reviews, but what I got wasn't it. This is a story about endings and beginnings and how women handle them. Three generations of women being released from their previous strictures and what they do with their freedom. One is a young woman now old enough to go out on her own. One is her divorced mother who has moved back to her childhood town. And the last is her widowed mother who has been traveling to see what she has missed since her late husband didn't like to travel.

The daughter you really only know through her actions, her letters, and information from phone calls about her. You don't get to know her emotionally or through much first-person contact. But she's now an adult and making the most of it. Making her own decisions and going as far as she can under her own steam. She doesn't have to answer to teachers or parents anymore.

The mother of the young woman is divorced and dealing with housing logistics. She's moving back to her hometown where her family is well known, but she hasn't been in many years. Her father has died and her mother has taken to traveling. The woman herself is an artist. She gets busy working emotions out in her art and scaring some of the locals with it. But she's also reconnecting with friends and making her life again in this town. Her cat has its kittens and she rescues a dog. She's busy nesting in the house the doctor left her, which seems to be its own story. Her mother spends Christmas with her then goes off on a cruise. As she explores the house and reacquaints herself with the town, she stirs things up and finds some dark corners that could use a little light shown on them. Questions that perhaps her mother could answer when she returns from her cruise.

The mother of the middle woman has been traveling to places she always wanted to see. Her husband was a wonderful man, but he wasn't a traveler. He was a scholar. She's spent Christmas with her daughter and now is off on a cruise. She runs into an old acquaintance who thinks she would make him the perfect wife now that he's 75 and she's a widow. She writes a letter to her daughter to tell her about the man's proposal and her thoughts on life.

Being a part of the lives of these women is experiencing life in the raw. Ms. Berridge allows us to share the highs and lows of emotion with these women as they work their way through these phases of their lives. This is a book I highly recommend for any reader of women's lit. I do believe this will go on my read again shelf.

This eARC was provided by Endeavour Press, Odyssey Press, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I am not being compensated in any way. All opinions are fully my own.
~ Judi E. Easley for Blue Cat Review

[Jenni Ogden · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a compelling read. The characters were not engaging or interesting and the story line tired. It is not always wise to republish a book years later by a writer who has gone on to write better things!

[Gayle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Spoiler alert: This book takes place in Wales and is about a newly divorced woman who has moved into a house she inherited. As she is refurbishing it, she frets about her college aged daughter who is spending time in India, and about her mother who spends all her time traveling since the death of her husband. Well, nothing of interest happens the ENTIRE book and as I hit the 98% mark in the book and her mother throws herself off a cruise ship (to her death) I realize I have wasted HOW MANY HOURS OF MY LIFE ON THIS BOOK????!!! I would like those hours back please. Will not read any more by this author.

[Felicity · Rating 4 out of 5]

The epigraph provides the source of the title, which might otherwise suggest a cheap and cheerful holiday romance. Indeed, the initial progress of the novel indicates the latter, but the unexpected turn of events defies the happy-ever-after expectations. But why the author of the excellent Across the Common should dally with formulaic romantic fiction defeats me, as the first hundred pages or so very nearly did.

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story didn't have much of a point and was somewhat disjointed.