The Home by Penelope Mortimer was first published in 1971 and it has just been reprinted by British Library in their Women Writers series. I was lucky enough to be sent a copy by them, for review.

The book begins with Eleanor vacating the family home with her teenage son Philip. Her husband Graham, a successful psychiatrist had left the family home and had moved in with his girlfriend Nell, (yes she has the same name as his wife – handy) she’s the latest in a long line of his infidelities. Graham is incensed when he realises that his wife has taken absolutely everything from their home and it’s now all in the house that she has chosen and he had had to pay for. She claims she needs a home for the children but of their five children only Philip is still at home and he’s at his boarding school most of the time. Of course Eleanor is emotionally fragile, and it seems that the men who had been interested in her have now transferred their allegiances to her adult daughter. As soon as she is available the men melt away. Eleanor finds herself lonely and unwanted, not only by her husband, but by her children too.

This makes it all sound rather grim but there’s also some humour there too. Graham is a rather pathetic soul, an embarrassment to his children, and not that he realises it, but his new young squeeze isn’t that enamoured of him, but he has celebrity patients and that impresses her.

Penelope Mortimer, who was married to the author John Mortimer, was in the middle of their divorce as she wrote this one. It’s such a tale of its times, when divorce became a bit easier although it still took five years if one of those involved didn’t wish to be divorced. The free availabilty of the contraceptive pill even to unmarried women at this time was a game-changer. The times they were a-changing!

I really enjoyed this book and I was amused to read in it that a female barrister called Georgina looked like Portia when she was in court. If you watched Rumpole of the Bailey or read the books you might remember that Rumpole always called the character Phyllida Erskine-Brown QC – Portia. It was obviously a Mortimer family thing.

Thank you to British Library for sending me a copy of the book for review. It has just been published. There’s an Afterword written by Simon Thomas. I love all the extra information on the times that are included although this era is well remembered by me as we got married in 1976 – but missed out the divorce bit! (Jack says – so far!)