Lavender Road by Helen Carey

Title: Lavender Road
Author: Helen Carey
Publication: Orion, hardcover, 1995
Genre: Historical Fiction / Series
Setting: South London, 1939

Description: Lavender Road is a street in South London with a posh end where the Rutherfords, who own the local brewery and half a dozen pubs, live and the impoverished end where a man is likely to beat his wife when not behind bars. This first book in Carey’s series focuses on the somewhat snooty Rutherfords; the Nelsons, whose efforts to have their first child have put strain on their marriage; and the no-better-than-they-should-be Carters. There’s even Mr. Lorenz, a Jewish pawnbroker whose shop is near the pub and is frequented by the Carters when they have stolen merchandise to liquidate. When Mrs. Rutherford asks Mrs. Carter to become her house cleaner, Mrs. Carter is reluctant to accept although she needs the money, but slowly a near-friendship grows between them, although it is threatened when jewelry disappears from the house. Carey looks at how war changes these families, especially the women. Pam Nelson gets a war job (reminiscent of Table Two by Marjorie Wilenski); Joyce Carter earns money of her own as a cleaner, against her husband’s wishes, although he drinks away any money he has; and Celia Rutherford learns her husband isn’t always right. 

The story is also about their teenage daughters: Jennifer Carter, determined to be an actress but distracted by the handsome Irishman lodging with the Nelsons; spoiled Louise Rutherford, who falls for a mysterious foreigner; and Katy Parsons, a 17-year-old invalid who lives above the pub. Katy observes all of Lavender Road from her window and knows all the secrets that can be observed from that vantage point but only author Carey knows what goes on behind closed doors in this series launch.

My Impression: There is a whole subgenre of British series about plucky families from varying classes and their tribulations during WWII, and this takes place over the first year. Carey’s characters seem especially well depicted and capable of sustaining interest (she is up to Book 6) as they evolve over the course of the war. The families on Lavender Road do not have much in common with each other but they all have ambitions that are being derailed by the war or, in a few instances, improved by freedom for women that did not previously exist. Katy Parsons’ illness and an overprotective mother have forced her into an observation role:

From her vantage point at the corner window, she could see right up the road to Clapham Common at the end. In a month or two when the chestnuts lost their leaves she would be able to make out the bandstand in the middle of the common, where all the paths met, but at this time of year the big leafy trees blocked her view at the end of Lavender Road.

Katy didn’t mind. She was fond of Lavender Road. It might be narrow and shabby, and the houses poky and inferior, as Jen always said, with their outside lavatories and lack of hot water, but they seemed much cosier to Katy than the tall houses overlooking the common. She was amused by the quirky period detail of them, the hideous beige and green ornamental tiles on the insides of the shallow front porches, the stained glass-door panels that some of them still retained. In the winter, she liked to see the chimneys smoking. It made the place feel lived in, she felt safe there, away from the high buildings and anonymous bustle of central London.

The outspoken and lively Jen visits Katy to boast or vent but is not a real friend. Katy has a crush on a man more interested in Louise. I hope Katy escapes from home and has her own adventures in future books.

Jen’s mother Joyce and Celia Rutherford develop a form of friendship or as much as can exist between the lady of the house and her cleaner. The Rutherfords are the sort of people who want a separate air raid shelter for their servants but given they have two sons who are likely to be killed in the war, pride may come before fall. I have always enjoyed descriptions of life on the homefront and this kept me interested throughout. It felt historically accurate other than the young women protagonists being out on the town in the evening without being questioned (Jen wouldn’t care what her mother said but Louise’s mother seemed surprisingly unaware that her daughter was carrying on with men much older than she). A nice touch is Joyce beginning to see the Jewish pawnbroker on the corner of Lavender Road as a human being, not merely a source of funds for stolen items.

This is my tenth historical fiction of the year for The Intrepid Reader’s 2023 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. I want to read the rest of the series; most of the books are not available in the US but I may be able to borrow them from a friend.

Source: InterLibrary Loan from the University of Wisconsin