Thank you to Jenny Hirst for the following review of ‘Stanley and Elsie’ by Nicola Upson.
This is a book which tells the story of the family life of the painter, Stanley Spencer, his wife, Hilda, their daughters, Shirin and Unity, Patricia Preece, Stanley’s muse and then lover and her lifelong partner Dorothy Hepworth, both accomplished painters. Their lives were turbulent and intense, shaped by the selfishness and desires of Stanley, a WW1 veteran, who exorcised his wartime memories and experiences by painting the walls of a chapel in Burghclere during the late 1920s and early 1930s, with huge murals depicting the more mundane aspects of soldiers’ daily lives.
Elsie Munday was their young housekeeper who did her best to hold the family together, becoming more than a servant as she was a listening ear for Hilda and Stanley. She remained a loyal, sensitive and feisty employee trying to meet the children’s needs, and those of the family, throughout her life with them.
The author develops the characters with beautiful descriptions of their lives, their art and where they lived. At all times, everything revolved around Stanley.
What the reading group discovered was that every character was a real person living through genuine events in real settings. An internet search of names and places in the book opened up a gallery of paintings by each artist, photographs of their lives and BBC interviews with the daughters who recalled that ‘our family life was a tragedy‘. Several group members enjoyed researching the Spencers and plans are afoot to visit Cookham and some of the other key places featured.
Most of the group thoroughly enjoyed reading about the bohemian lives of the Spencers, their creative obsessions and unusual attitudes to relationships. One or two didn’t find Elsie’s status in the family hierarchy authentic; however, this was no ordinary household and research showed that there was some truth in the portrayal. Stanley’s misogynistic attitude was infuriating at times, but a softer side to him was shown at the end.
Nicola Upson began writing in 2008 and to date has written a 12 book series of murder mystery novels with another real person, Josephine Tey, the Scottish author, as the central character. She clearly likes to create a story from a mixture of fiction and real life.
Louise Elsome
Bookworms Group Coordinator