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Then suddenly we find ourselves left alone in a dull crowded street with no one caring and our lives unneeded, and all the fine things we meant to do, like toys that a child had laid aside.'
In the stifling confines of Edwardian Yorkshire, Muriel Hammond is waiting for her life to begin. Marriage, respectability, duty - these are all part of the script - but just as she believes that 'men do as they like' while women 'wait to see what they will do', she dreams of a life beyond those boundaries. As war transforms the village of Marshington and friends slot into their expected roles, Muriel needs courage to reframe her sad fate as a 'surplus woman' and look towards her own independent future. As a forerunner of protagonist Sarah Burton in Holtby's celebrated South Riding, she embodies the wit and quiet rebellion of a talented author committed to social reform.
In the stifling confines of Edwardian Yorkshire, Muriel Hammond is waiting for her life to begin. Marriage, respectability, duty - these are all part of the script - but just as she believes that 'men do as they like' while women 'wait to see what they will do', she dreams of a life beyond those boundaries. As war transforms the village of Marshington and friends slot into their expected roles, Muriel needs courage to reframe her sad fate as a 'surplus woman' and look towards her own independent future. As a forerunner of protagonist Sarah Burton in Holtby's celebrated South Riding, she embodies the wit and quiet rebellion of a talented author committed to social reform.
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Reviews
"Sarah Lambie's spirited performance enlivens a sometimes hard-to-like-even with its commendable feminist significance-1924 British novel in which a woman finds her way past limitations of character, gender roles, and circumstance to escape a dreary life in a Yorkshire village. Lambie's energy, talent, and full engagement transform the text, as much as possible, into genuine entertainment. Her clarity, textual precision, and pace support her emotionally vivid embodiments of both male and female characters, aided by a fine ability to vary voices and change accents. One quibble: She continues full-throated, emotive acting into scenic descriptions, which is mildly distracting and silly. Her singing, occasionally called for, is an unexpected plus.
Lambie makes Holtby's significant, if sometimes unprepossessing, novel into an engaging listen with a bravura performance."
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