A Touch of Mistletoe

Description

This is the story of Blanche and Vicky. Following the death of their grandfather- in whose enormous Warwickshire house they live - their motherrelinquishes drink (to which she had taken in a big way) for the joys of frantichousework. Naturally the girls long to escape. Blanche trains as a model at a dubious institution in London, and Vicky fleesto Holland and a purgatorial life as an au pair to a lot of dogs. But this is onlythe beginning and other adventures await them, including the poverty and cabbagesmells of one-room living, the charcoaled fingers of art school,drunkenness and cheap restaurants of Soho bohemia, and varying degrees ofexcitement with several husbands and lovers. First published in 1967, A Touch of Mistletoe shows Barbara Comyns' originalvoice at its best, mixing a characteristic simplicity with a quiet butcunning wit. 'Everyone should read Barbara Comyns... There is no one to beat her when it comes to the uncanny.' - Rachel Cooke, Guardian 'Comyns's heroines, and her novels, are plaintive, strange, and robust all at once.' - TLS

Barbara Comyns was born in England in 1909 and raised ina Warwickshire country house. She and her siblings werebrought up by governesses, and allowed to run wild. In herteens she attended art school in London. She wrote elevenbooks including Sisters by a River, Our Spoons Came fromWoolworths, The Vet's Daughter and Who Was Changedand Who Was Dead. To support her family she did a varietyof jobs over her life including dealing in antiques and vintagecars, renovating apartments, and breeding poodles. Shewas an accomplished painter, and exhibited with the LondonGroup. She died in 1992.

'Everyone should read Barbara Comyns... There is no one to beat her whenit comes to the uncanny.' - Rachel Cooke, Guardian 'Comyns's heroines, and her novels, are plaintive, strange, and robust all atonce.' - TLS