Guest review by Cindy Jefferies: LILLIAN BOXFISH TAKES A WALK by Kathleen Rooney

 

"Lillian charmed me into her life."

First published in 2001 for children, Cindy Jefferies found success with her Fame School series with Usborne Books, obtaining 22 foreign rights deals. Latterly writing fiction for adults as Cynthia Jefferies, her first title The Outrageous Fortune of Abel Morgan was published in 2018, followed a year later by The Honourable Life of Thomas Chayne, set during the English Civil Wars, followed in 2019. Both titles are now available in paperback.

Two words. Flâneuse, something I certainly am, though perhaps not to the extent Lillian Boxfish is: and anhedonia, something I don’t suffer from but a word I had come across for the first time in an online article I was reading recently. I had never seen the word before, but being distracted for a moment I neglected to look it up. Then, with the serendipity I so love in life, a few days later, there it was again, in the book I was reviewing. Wikipedia will give you a useful definition if you don’t know the word but I won’t enlighten you here, because to do so might spoil your pleasure a little, in reading Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk.

Kathleen Rooney’s novel was a slow burn for me. There was the happy anticipation of encountering a character who shares my enjoyment of wandering alone through the streets. Also, it is always a pleasure to handle a Daunt paperback. The substantial cover and the high quality of the paper, smooth and sensuous to the touch, both delight. However, there was no street map, to help me with Lillian’s walk through Manhattan on her cold, New Year’s Eve night. I thought it would be essential, and mourned the lack as soon as riffling through the pages revealed it.

My only experience of New York is being driven through the city at speed to try and catch a plane. (Fortunately for me it had been delayed and I caught it.) My feet have never walked these streets and I feared that my lack of knowledge would spoil the novel experience. So, I started to read, a little disengaged; but as the book had been a present from my daughter I felt I should give it a go. I’m very glad I did. The wistfulness at the lack of a street plan was soon forgotten, as Lillian charmed me into her life.

Lillian Boxfish is inspired partly by the real, highest paid female advertising copywriter in the world during the 1930’s. The author’s notes expand on this but I won’t here. Suffice it to say that in this unusual and enjoyable novel there are written adverts, poetry, humour, memories and walking. Take a trip to your local, independent bookshop; walking if possible, and seek out this book.

I was going to leave you with one of the rhymes scattered through its pages, but decided instead on one sentence that has, sadly, perhaps never been more true.

People who command respect are never as widely known as people who command attention.

Lilian Boxfish Takes a Walk is published by Daunt Books.

More of Cindy's choices for Writers Review:

Buddha Da by Anne Donovan

The Wolf Border by Sarah Hall

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim

Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller