Elizabeth Mavor’s 1967 novel is set against the background of the 1953 east coast floods. Although the floods were caused by the conjunction of extreme weather events, her book summons up the likely impact of the climate crisis on all of us if action is not taken to halt current trends. A warning from history indeed.
It is not just the sea wall, the redoubt, that is breached. Relationships too are torn apart, though sometimes human ingenuity and determination can repair them.
Heavily pregnant and besotted with her lover Faber, who she has literally re-claimed, Eve Hardcastle has been given a home at Dirty Nancy’s, the pub belonging to the no-nonsense Lil. On the night of the storm Lil and her lodger Carl are thrown together in their joint battle against the elements and their own pasts: his unnaturally rigid and fixed, concealed in an intellectual, scientific approach; hers intuitive, spontaneous and life-affirming.
It is her practical skills and common sense that may see them through.
| On publication a review in the Times noted that ‘What makes [the book] … unforgettable is her marvellous power to convey the flood itself …’. |
Elizabeth Mavor is best known for her 1971 book ‘The Ladies of Llangollen’. She wrote six other non-fiction books and five fiction ones, of which this is the third.