Another book that I’m shamefully late in reading – but very glad that I did.
Thanks to NetGalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review – I also bought a copy of the audiobook from Audible and so my review reflects my experiences of both.
This book centres on Mecklenburgh Square, an address in Bloomsbury, London that was home to five groundbreaking and fascinating women during the interwar years. It’s an interesting idea, that this little corner of London famous for its thinkers and writers, was the shared address of these brilliant women – even though they didn’t live there at the same time and were often resident at very different points in their lives. For all of them, Mecklenburgh Square proved to be the ‘room of one’s own’ (in Virgina Woolf’s words) that gave the women the freedom to develop their careers independently.
The book opens with the bombing of the square in 1940 at a point when Virginia Woolf was resident – an immersive opening and the point to which we return at the end of the book (as Woolf is the fifth of the five women presented here). Then follows a chapter each on the five women – Hilda Doolittle (HD), Dorothy L Sayers, Jane Ellen Harrison, Eileen Power, Virginia Woolf – before we return to the bomb site and a summary of the women’s lives (and deaths), often after leaving the square,
Each chapter is meticulously researched and gives an insight into five very different but impactful lives. The writer is keen to present how remarkable these women were in their respective fields, although she doesn’t cover over their less appealing traits either, so we are shown nuanced and realistic views rather than lists of achievements. These women pushed the boundaries – both professionally and often in their private lives too, having unconventional relationships and living arrangements for the period.
Of them all, I probably already knew most about Virginia Woolf, although this book gave me lots of information that I didn’t already know too – especially about the (fascinating) work that she was doing on women, art and community before her suicide. It feels like an acute loss that this never came to fruition. The portrait of Woolf was also surprisingly vibrant and in many ways joyous – a long way from the gloomy image of her that is so often presented in the light of her tragic breakdown and death.
I don’t want to spoil the book for anyone by giving away too much of these amazing women’s stories. It is, however, worth noting that they excelled in such different fields so there is something that should interest everyone – as well as novelist Woolf, there is poet HD, historian Power, crime writer Sayers and linguist Harrison. There are famous friends, lovers, scandals, successes, failures, the domestic, the literary and the academic – all of life here for the reader’s enjoyment.
The audiobook is beautifully read by Corrie James – her Received Pronunciation reading of the book really brings the women’s lives and (relatively wealthy, middle/upper-class) world alive. It’s actually becoming quite unusual to hear the Queen’s English without accents nowadays (no judgement here – I love an accent!) but this was a good choice of reader for this particular book – some of whose subjects would probably sound a lot like Corrie James if they were still around to chat to us.
Although I thoroughly enjoyed the audiobook, I think a print copy would be an absolute treat as there are photographs, an extensive additional reading list and a helpful index.
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Header photo by Art Lasovsky on Unsplash
Sounds like a really fascinating, well-researched book!