Greenery Street by Dennis Mackail, for the #1925Club

Greenery Street is a gentle comedy of manners about an upper middle class British couple enjoying their first year of marriage on an idyllic street in London. Ian Forster is an infatuated young man, with a low-level job at an insurance company that pays £250/year, and his new wife, Felicity Hamilton, is an indulged younger daughter with no sense of money management (he realizes early on this is not going to improve but accepts it – it may not be so winsome in five years).

She knows exactly where they should begin their married life, if they can afford it and if she can locate it:

A picture began to form itself in Felicity’s mind of two rows of symmetrical doorsteps, of first floor French windows which opened on to diminutive balconies, of a sunny little street with scarlet omnibuses roaring past one end and a vista of trees seen facing the other. Sometimes it was so clear that she could almost read the name on the corner lamp-post; sometimes it faded to a blur, or the view-point changed so that only one house was visible . . . . “That’s the house we’re going to live in,” she said to herself. “But where did I see it?” Where could she have been going when a momentary glimpse from a taxi had shown her that passage-hall and that window? And why had she forgotten all about it at the time, only to find itself lodged so obstinately in her memory now?

Felicity, who is meant to be enchantingly ditsy, tries wandering around London to find the street but Ian, more practical, describes her vision to a taxi driver, who says it is just around the corner. Greenery Street (which is actually Walpole Street in Chelsea) operates almost as a character in this book, welcoming young newlyweds to these charming four level townhouses, which have enough room for a servant or two, but can barely squeeze in a baby. Accordingly, Greenery Street bids these couples goodbye when they need more space for their offspring (and we hope these husbands have increased their income by then so they can afford a larger home). 

Felicity’s housekeeping adventures include mismanagement of the funds she receives from her husband (and father) to pay for household and her own personal expenses. The funniest parts involve her indignation when the servants misbehave and her inability to scold them about it. Ian is horrified when Felicity tells him she found their maid, whom they have nicknamed The Murderess, in the basement kissing a man from one of their shops, and equally appalled to hear Felicity was so embarrassed she said nothing, except to ask for tea to be brought upstairs:

“Well, how’d it be if I spoke to her?”

Felicity’s look of anxiety became tinged with one of interest.

“What would you say?” she asked.

“Well, I suppose I should – I mean, I might begin by – Well, ‘s a matter of fact, I don’t quite know.”

“I thought not,” said Felicity.

Later, when Ian realizes the staff have been drinking his whisky, he and Felicity agree the woman really must be sacked. To avoid the awkwardness of a face-to-face encounter, they decide to go away for the weekend and terminate her by letter so she will be gone when they return! My first thought was to recall how much better mail delivery was then and my second was that they were naïve to think she would then leave empty handed!

Although nothing significant happens in Greenery Street, it is an upbeat story about the vicissitudes of daily life that is quite a contrast to some of the bleak books about the 1920s. For one thing, Felicity has no difficulty finding a husband and she finds a kind one, although not as affluent as her brother-in-law.  Ian is a very warm-hearted young man, not afraid of his affection for his wife, no matter how silly she is. He is inarticulate around Felicity’s family but does not try to avoid them and patiently listens to her discussions of them. He is a devoted if not overly intelligent spouse, and it is certainly a charming read.  The introduction revealed that Denis Mackail was inspired by his own very happy marriage when he wrote this book and the book is dedicated to his wife. He had grown up in a relatively stern Victorian household; his mother was the only daughter of Sir Edward Burne-Jones, and his older sister was Angela Thirkell.  I have a complete set of her books, after reading them all from the library one summer when I was in college, and while he was nearly as prolific as his sister, this is the novel for which he is most remembered.

I chose this book for the #1925Club, hosted by StuckinaBook and Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings, in which bloggers are invited to read and review books that were published in a chosen year.  I had read several books published in 1925: The Great Gatsby, The Painted Veil, Mrs. Dalloway, When We Were Very Young, The School at the Chalet, and A Certain Crossroad.  Note that the flaw with Persephone Books is their boring covers, so I used the original.  There is no back cover copy either; I remember now that when I visited the shop, this made it hard to decide what to buy so I left empty handed, intending to research and return, but never did.

Title: Greenery Street
Author: Denis Mackail (1892–1971)

Publication: Persephone, trade paperback, originally published in 1925
Genre: Fiction
Source: Library