The Mingham Air
Elizabeth Fair
1960
5/5 stars
Elegant and efficient Hester Clifford, recovering from pneumonia combined with a broken heart, has left London to spend the summer with her godmother, Cecily Hutton, in the small village of Great Mingham. Cecily's family consists of her husband, Bennet, who enjoys ill health; Maggie, her anything BUT elegant daughter who takes great delight in working on a farm to the consternation of Cecily; and her indolent son, Derek, who can't settle to any job. Hester sees her visit as an opportunity to change for the better the entire Hutton family, as well as their friend Thomas Seamark, the young, brooding widower of Mingham Priory. As Cecily describes her, Hester has "restless vitality"; "change and action, clean sweeps and new enterprises, seemed to her good in themselves, because she felt the need for an outlet for her own abundant energy". The Mingham Air follows Hester and her good intentions through the summer, and ends with some surprising outcomes.
This delightful, witty novel is filled with excellently-drawn characters, believable situations, and intelligent prose. The Mingham Air is Fair's sixth and final novel, and while they are all wonderful studies of life, this one surpasses the others in depth and maturity. The gradual emotional growth of the young people and the slow changes of the parents, are both well-written and a pleasure to read. Overall, this gentle but perceptive book is a forgotten gem, and I recommend it, as well as Fair's five others, wholeheartedly.
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