Going Back

Penelope Lively

In her preface Penelope Lively writes: "Going Back was first published as a children's book. I suppose that was what I though I had written. Reading it now, I see that it is only tenuously so; the pitch, the voice, the focus are not really those of a true children's book." She was writing in 1990, fifteen years after Going Back was first published.

Since books which blur the line between children's and adult fiction are so fashionable at the moment I thought this would be an interesting read. The main body of the story is a portrait of the second world war in rural Somerset seen through the eyes of an eleven year old narrator, Jane. A child's world is a miniature world and surnames need not exist - instead we are introduced to Edward (Jane's brother), Father (a widower, mostly away soldiering and a stern unlovable presence on his few visits), Betty (the housekeeper and surrogate mother), Mike (conscientous objector - "the conchie" billetted on Jane and Edward's farm) and many others, mostly farm-hands or land-girls, benign presences and very dear to the children.

The story is straightforwardly told of a happy rural childhood with Edward and Jane left largely to entertain themselves tadpoling, building dens, exploring the local undergrowth. The war barely intrudes except for the fluidity in the adult world it generates. In come the land-girls, Mike, evacuees with strange accents, American soldiers. For the children it is exciting rather than unsettling. But we know from hints early on the plot that something terrible is going to happen. And when it happens it is surprisingly low-key but I think Penelope Lively is playing with scale again and an event that is minor seen through adult eyes can loom very large in the childhood memory. And so it is in this book.