I am a little puzzled by this novel, which is very different to [b:Cold Comfort Farm|92780|Cold Comfort Farm|Stella Gibbons|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1416161594s/92780.jpg|847348] and sequels, the only other Stella Gibbons I’ve read. ‘Westwood’ at times reads like an arch and witty satire, but at others like a depressing family melodrama. The Second World War, during which it is set, is entirely incidental. My favourite example of the satirical bent:

‘...The play was called In Autumn; it was about a woman who was described by her friends as “corrupt yet fiery” - a sort of compost heap and bonfire in one, but not so useful as either.’

The book was at its most powerful and acerbic when adopting the point of view of Gerald Challis, playwright. His portrayal was a believable, albeit sometimes shocking, portrait of a well-bred, well-off, utterly arrogant man. I winced at the truth of this: ‘Like most seekers for an ideal woman, he did not really like women, believing that they disappointed and failed him on purpose’.

The majority of characters are women, however, including our ostensible protagonist, the unfortunately named Margaret Steggles. I sympathised with her, as she seemed to personify the plight of academically minded women at the time. Throughout the novel she yearns for interesting conversation, artistic experiences, and kindred spirits. By the end, she has been repeatedly disappointed and told by various older characters that she can either expect to get married or become a religiously obsessed spinster. Neither prospect attracts her. I wanted her to know that the life she wishes for could be found in studying at university, although that wouldn’t become a likely prospect for a lower middle class girl until decades later. Thus Gibbons seems to have drawn attention to the sad plight of a single woman, but I couldn’t determine whether she was trying to make that wider social point. Maybe? But all the usual 1940s sexism, racism, and ableism was present too.

This novel is fluidly written, but not that much actually happens. I felt that it neither went deep into the protagonist’s soul (as [b:The Rector's Daughter|1220032|The Rector's Daughter|F.M. Mayor|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1477226543s/1220032.jpg|1208509] does) nor really pursued a wider family drama angle. Thus it was ultimately rather unsatisfying, despite contained elements that definitely merit recommendation. ( )

If Cold Comfort Farm was a high point of a peculiar kind of class-based English humour, then this is the low-point of an author who hits you on the head with her absolutely humourless opinions on class, beauty and stupid women. This is so bad it leaves you wondering how anyone this awful actually had it in them to write a masterpiece.

The only thing that stuck with me was Lady Pronounces-on-Everything saying to the extremely good, extremely plain and unbelievably stupid heroine that (because of her unfortunate looks) she might never get married and might have to do the most difficult thing on earth - learn to live without love.

Oh dear.
This review aims to be really helpful and save you time, money and tedium. I wish I hadn't had to go through it. ( )

I’m usually hit or miss with Stella Gibbons’s novels. I was on the fence about her most famous novel, Cold Comfort Farm; but I loved Nightingale Wood. Westwood falls into the Nightingale Wood category, happily.

Set in London in the midst of WWII, Westwood is the story of Margaret Steggles, a romantically-minded young woman who, after finding a ration book belonging to one Hebe Niland, becomes entangled with the family who live at Westwood, primarily among them Gerard Challis, a middle-aged playwright at work on what he believes is his masterpiece. Then there’s his daughter, Hebe; her husband, Alex; and their three children. A variety of other characters round out the cast, including Margaret’s cheerful old school friend Hilda, who never takes anything seriously; and Dick, a friend of Margaret’s father.

Stella Gibbons is incredibly adept at describing her characters without explicitly saying so. For example, we know that Gerard Challis is an incredibly hypocritical man because he describes his wife as dated; yet he assumes that Hilda is a reader of the novels of Ethel M. Dell, a writer popular 15-20 years prior to the setting of the novel. He’s literally the kind of man who doesn’t like children or puppies; so you can see why he’s such an unlikeable character. He also doesn’t have much of a sense of humor; Hilda’s sarcasm goes completely over his head. I even think that Margaret takes herself and her ideals too seriously; and we’re never sure if she’s really in love with Gerard Challis, or if she’s just in love with the ideal he represents (and in the end, I got the feeling that the Niland/Challis family just used her as a glorified babysitter). As a result, the characters that take themselves the most seriously are the ones that Stella Gibbons subtly pokes fun at; and therein lies the comedy of this novel.

The world these characters live in is very insulated too; but I think that Stella Gibbons did that intentionally. For example, there’s no mention of what was going on in the outside world at the time. But maybe Gibbons did that in order to preserve the comedy of the novel (exclusion of the outside world was a common theme in WWII literature, mostly because people wanted to forget about reality when they read a novel such as this one). In all, Westwood is one of the better books I’ve read this year. ( )