My Friday Post: Our Spoons Came From Woolworths

Published on by Margaret

Book Beginnings ButtonEvery Friday Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Gillion at Rose City
Reader where you can share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.

My opening this week is from Our Spoons Came From Woolworths by Barbara Comyns.

I told Helen my story and she went home and cried. In the evening her husband came to see me and brought some strawberries; he mended my bicycle, too, and was kind, but he needn’t have been, because it all happened eight years ago, and I’m not unhappy now.

Friday 56Also every Friday there is The Friday 56, hosted by Freda at Freda’s Voice.

These are the rules:

  1. Grab a book, any book.
  2. Turn to page 56, or 56% on your eReader.
  3. Find any sentence (or a few, just don’t spoil it) that grabs you.
  4. Post it.
  5. Add the URL to your post in the link on Freda’s most recent Friday 56 post.

From Page 56:

Charles said he had borrowed some money to send telegrams to his relations saying we had a boy of six ounces. I told him it was six pounds not ounces, but he said a few pounds either way wouldn’t make any difference. But Charles’s telegrams caused a huge sensation, and his family was most disappointed when in due course they discovered we had had quite a normal baby.

Description from the back cover:

Pretty, unworldly Sophia is twenty-one years old and hastily married to a young painter called Charles. An artist’s model with an eccentric collection of pets, she is ill-equipped to cope with the bohemian London of the 1930s, where poverty, babies (however much loved) and husband conspire to torment her.

Hoping to add some spice to her life, Sophia takes up with Peregrine, a dismal, ageing critic, and comes to regret her marriage – and her affair. But in this case virtue is more than its own reward, for repentance brings an abrupt end to the cycle of unsold pictures, unpaid bills and unwashed dishes . . .

I’m only a few chapters into this book which at first seems to be a comic novel, written in a chatty, relaxed style, but going by the blurb it may not end that way.

17 thoughts on “My Friday Post: Our Spoons Came From Woolworths”

  1. Hi Margaret!

    Oh, yes, it seems that something bad has happened to her – that’s intriguing. I want to know what, now.

    Hope you continue to enjoy it.

    Here is my choice for this week. Have a great weekend!

    Sassy x

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  3. This does sound intriguing, Margaret. And I have to say, I like that title; there’s something about it… I’l be interested in your thoughts when you’ve finished it.

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  8. That is quite a difference–six pounds and six ounces! I can see why that would cause quite a stir. This sounds like a fun book. I hope you enjoy it!

    Have a great weekend, and thank you for sharing.

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  13. Hi Margaret,

    Long time, no speak.

    I hope that all is well with you 🙂

    I am not totally convinced that this is a book I would enjoy, although there have been many reviews and ratings, most of which seem to be quite positive.

    I did quite like and appreciate the excerpts you shared though and I do like the new and updated cover art version you have.

    ‘Happy Reading’

    Yvonne

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  14. Thanks everyone for your comments. I’ve read further on and am enjoying it a good picture of life in the 1930s and makes me very grateful for the NHS!

    Yvonne, I’m fine, thanks for asking!

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